THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

RIVERSIDE 


BY 


DAVID  SNEDDEN,  PH.D. 

Commissioner  V  Education,  Massachusetts 


BOSTON  NEW  YORK  CHICAGO 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 
<$&e  Bitaet^itie  $rts#  Cambridge 


COPYRIGHT,  1913,  BY  DAVID  SNEDDEN 
ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


For  permission  to  use  in  this  volume  papers  that  have 
previously  been  published  as  magazine  articles,  ac- 
knowledgment is  made  to  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  the 
Educational  Review,  Education,  the  School  Review, 
Vocational  Education,  and  the  Journal  of  Educational 
Psychology. 


vCfir  KibertfOtt  $re«0 

CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 


PREFACE 

How  shall  education  be  made  efficient? 
Undiscriminating  critics  have  always  con- 
demned the  schools  for  their  failure  to  pro- 
duce a  higher  type  of  men  and  women ;  but 
now  the  large  majority  of  educators  are  them- 
selves convinced  that  the  traditional  processes 
of  training  and  instruction  are  far  from  rend- 
ering efficient  educational  service.  In  all  direc- 
tions men  and  women,  moved  by  the  vision  of 
a  brighter  future  on  earth,  are  striving  to 
promote  human  well-being.  Education  is  but 
one  of  the  phases  of  this  newer  social  economy. 
It,  too,  is  certainly  capable  of  being  made 
more  purposeful,  more  scientific,  less  blind  in 
its  methods,  less  doubtful  as  to  its  results. 

But  educational  processes  can  be  improved 
only  as  particular  phases  or  fields  of  education 
are  singled  out  for  consideration  and  construc- 
tive effort.  It  is  probable,  for  example,  that 
American  primary  education,  judged  by  valid 


ir  PREFACE 

standards,  would  be  found  to  be  far  more 
efficient  than  that  designed  for  young  persons 
from  twelve  to  fourteen  years  of  age,  or  that 
designed  for  youths  from  fourteen  to  eighteen 
years  of  age.  Again,  careful  analysis  might 
show  that  the  customary  education  of  the  high 
school  is  fairly  effective  for  that  minority  who 
are  qualified  to  pass  to  institutions  of  higher 
learning;  while  for  the  large  majority,  to 
whom  it  represents  the  final  stage  of  system- 
atic cultural  education,  it  may  be  of  little 
actual  service.  The  problem  is  one  to  be  con- 
sidered as  it  touches  particular  groups  of  chil- 
dren or  particular  aims  to  be  realized. 

In  each  of  the  following  papers  a  particular 
educational  problem  is  isolated  for  purposes 
of  analysis  and  discussion.  In  each  case  the 
problem  is  one  growing  out  of  contemporary 
efforts  to  render  education  more  effective  by 
defining  purposes  or  aims  in  a  scientific  man- 
ner, and  to  secure  methods  designed  to  achieve 
these  purposes. 

There  can  be  but  little  question  that  the 
most  characteristic  weakness  of  American  edu- 


PREFACE  v 

cation,  as  that  concerns  young  persons  from 
twelve  to  eighteen  years  of  age,  is  to  be  found 
in  its  failure  to  formulate  valid  aims.  Being 
guided  by  no  sufficient  aims,  it  is  inevitable 
that  the  educational  practice  followed  shall 
waver  between  the  Scylla  of  custom-made  (and 
therefore  blind)  method  on  the  one  hand,  and 
the  Charybdis  of  purely  empirical  device  on 
the  other. 

The  following  papers,  with  one  exception, 
treat  of  but  a  few  of  the  fundamental  prob- 
lems growing  out  of  the  unscientific  aims  of 
contemporary  education  as  that  is  designed 
for  adolescents.  What  do  we  mean  by  culture, 
social  efficiency,  or  liberal  education?  What 
is  vocational  education,  and  how  is  it  related 
to  general  education?  What  are  some  broad 
principles  of  method  by  which  profitable  re- 
sults are  to  be  achieved?  These  questions  are 
at  least  implicit  in  the  discussion  of  each  topic 
presented. 

The  papers  have  been  written  with  a  view 
to  provoking  further  discussion  of  the  ques- 
tions involved.  If  it  be  true  that  in  the  field 


Ti  PREFACE 

of  general  secondary  education  we  have  as 
yet  few  aims  that  are  educationally  serviceable 
or  valid,  then  we  must  address  ourselves  to 
this  field  of  study  before  we  can  either  deter- 
mine subject-matter  or  elaborate  right  method. 
An  illustration  may  serve  to  make  this  clear. 

If,  for  example,  we  ask  the  question  as  to 
why  girls  should,  as  a  condition  of  graduat- 
ing from  the  ordinary  high  school  course,  be 
required  to  study  algebra,  we  shall  be  given 
two  sorts  of  replies,  each  based  on  certain  con- 
ceptions of  educational  aim.  The  first  answer 
will  be  to  the  effect  that  algebra  is  a  neces- 
sary part  of  a  secondary  education,  that  it  is 
prescribed  for  admission  to  college,  etc.  But 
if  it  be  further  asked  why  the  subject  is  re- 
quired in  secondary  education  or  for  admission 
to  college,  we  receive  the  familiar  replies  that 
the  study  of  algebra  has  peculiar  merit  as  a 
means  of  "  training  the  mind,"  "  giving  cul- 
ture," "  leading  to  a  comprehension  of  the 
universe,"  "serving  as  a  foundation  for  voca- 
tional efficiency,"  etc. 

It  is  evident  that  no  school  subject  can 


PREFACE  vii 

rightly  be  regarded  as  an  end  in  itself.  But 
equally  it  should  be  clear  that  the  vague  and 
general  ends  stated  above  are  as  yet  so  inde- 
terminate and  illusory  as  to  serve  little  or  no 
useful  purpose  in  enabling  us  to  determine, 
in  the  first  place,  whether  algebra  study  should 
be  required  at  all,  and  in  the  second,  as  to  the 
methods  to  be  followed  and  specific  results  to 
be  sought  in  teaching  it. 

Somewhere  in  the  cultural,  social,  and  voca- 
tional utilities  of  modern  life  are  to  be  found 
the  determining  aims  of  education;  and  in 
large  measure  these  must  be  analyzed  and 
studied  one  by  one.  The  educator  must  evolve 
a  philosophy  of  the  educative  process  as  a 
whole ;  but  he  must  learn  to  seek  his  goal  by 
successive  steps  and  stages,  each  clearly  pro- 
visioned in  relation  to  the  whole. 

D.  S. 


CONTENTS 

I.  NEW  EDUCATION  AND  EDUCATIONAL  READ- 
JUSTMENT  1 

n.  THE  NEW  BASIS  OP  METHOD 33 

III.  WHAT  is  LIBERAL  EDUCATION? 65 

IV.  WHY  STUDY  HISTORY? 88 

V.  THE  PRACTICAL   ARTS  IN  LIBERAL   EDUCA- 
TION  113 

VI.  DIFFERENTIATED    PROGRAMS  OF    STUDY   FOB 

OLDER  CHILDREN  IN  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOLS  130 

VII.  THE    OPPORTUNITY    OF   THE    SMALL    HIGH 

SCHOOL 154 

VEIL  DEBATABLE  ISSUES  IN  VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION  183 

IX.  PROBLEMS   IN    THE    PSYCHOLOGY    OF   VOCA- 
TIONAL EDUCATION 211 

X.  CENTRALIZED  vs.  LOCALIZED  ADMINISTRATION 

OF  PUBLIC  EDUCATION 233 

INDEX  .  .  261 


PROBLEMS  OF  EDUCATIONAL 
READJUSTMENT 


THE  NEW  EDUCATION  AND  EDUCATIONAL 
READJUSTMENT 

Is  there  a  new  education  ?  There  certainly 
is  a  new  education  in  the  same  sense  that 
there  is  a  new  industrial  order,  a  new  practice 
of  medicine,  a  new  philanthropy.  The  new 
education,  as  yet  but  partially  evolved,  owes 
its  origins,  on  the  one  hand,  to  the  develop- 
ment of  scientific  knowledge,  and  on  the 
other,  to  the  spread  of  democratic  ideals.  Sci- 
ence has  revolutionized  agriculture,  commerce, 
communication,  and  warfare;  and  it  is  now 
bringing  in  a  new  education.  Strivings  to- 
wards democracy,  expressed  in  the  newer 
social  economy,  have  transformed  government, 
religion,  and  social  organization;  the  new  ed- 


2  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

ucation  is  in  part  the  product  of  the  same 
influences. 

What  we  call,  for  convenience,  the  new 
education  is  at  present  an  exceedingly  com- 
posite affair.  In  large  part  it  is  a  matter  of 
new  ideals  rather  than  of  new  practice.  The 
breakdown  of  faith  in  older  customs  and  doc- 
trines is  always  accompanied  by  a  boundless 
disposition  to  launch  new  experiments  and  to 
form  new  parties  or  cults.  While  in  some 
slight  measure  the  new  education  may  already 
have  influenced  social  evolution,  it  is  prima- 
rily the  demands  of  contemporary  civilization 
which  are  forcing  readjustments  in  education. 
This  new  civilization  is  compelling  education 
to  define  anew  its  purposes,  to  extend  the 
range  of  its  activities,  and  to  improve  upon 
its  ancient  methods. 

In  education,  as  in  many  other  forms  of 
institutional  life,  the  present  is  a  period  of 
acute  transition.  Education  has  hitherto  rested 
upon  a  foundation  of  custom;  it  must  here- 
after rest  upon  a  basis  of  scientific  knowledge. 
Its  aims  and  practices  have  been  in  large 


THE  NEW  EDUCATION  3 

measure  the  slowly  derived  products  of  the 
method  of  "  trial  and  success."  A  civilization, 
or  any  institution  needful  to  civilized  life, 
can  develop  only  to  a  limited  degree  upon  the 
basis  of  the  "  trial  and  success  "  method,  the 
results  of  which  are  crystallized  into  custom- 
ary practice  and  dogma.  Only  up  to  a  certain 
point  in  social  evolution,  is  the  "  custom  "  basis 
efficient;  beyond  that,  it  is  wasteful  and  re- 
tarding. 

Modern  history  presents  many  of  the  char- 
acteristics of  periods  of  transition  in  the  sev- 
eral forms  of  institutional  life.  The  industrial 
processes  of  the  eighteenth  century  rested 
everywhere  on  a  basis  of  social  habit;  the 
modern  transformation  of  industry,  due  to  the 
application  of  scientific  knowledge,  has  been  a 
painful  but  a  glorious  process.  The  produc- 
tivity of  human  labor  has  undoubtedly  been 
increased  many  fold  thereby,  but  it  is  not  clear 
that  the  accompanying  social  readjustments 
have  been  more  than  partially  beneficent. 
Modern  agriculture,  with  its  adjunct  of  cheap 
transportation,  differs,  at  its  best,  immeasur- 


4  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

ably  from  the  agriculture  of  even  seventy-five 
years  ago.  But  the  transformation  now  going 
on  here  is  even  yet  chaotic  in  many  of  its  as- 
pects, and  is  attended  still  by  the  disappear- 
ance of  cherished  institutions  which  were 
themselves  the  slow  outgrowth  of  the  ancient 
customs  of  tillage  and  soil  ownership. 

The  "  arts  of  healing  "  of  our  grandfathers, 
the  product  of  ages  of  selective  effort,  have 
given  way  to  the  modern  science  of  medicine. 
But  people  still  cling  to  the  dogmas  and  cures 
of  the  older  medicine  as  to  cherished  heir- 
looms, and  not  all  of  the  changes  accompany- 
ing the  development  of  the  "  new  medicine " 
have  been  fortunate.  In  this  transition  from 
social  habit  to  medical  science,  we  have  seen 
the  conflicts  of  opinion,  the  destruction  of 
old  beliefs,  the  ineffective  pretensions  of  prac- 
tices based  upon  half-tested  science,  and,  in 
many  cases,  the  same  overtaxing  of  the  powers 
of  readjustment,  which  make  all  great  social 
revolutions  painful,  and  often  productive  also 
of  skepticism  and  disorder. 

In  education  we  are  as  yet  nearer  the  be- 


THE  NEW  EDUCATION  5 

ginning  than  the  end  of  a  great  period  of 
transformation.  It  is  inevitable  that  this  should 
be  so  because  of  the  complex  and  obscure 
character  of  the  sciences  upon  which,  ulti- 
mately, all  educational  practice  must  rest. 
The  physical  sciences,  which  are  to  a  great 
extent  basal  to  industry,  war,  and  communi- 
cation, were  the  first  to  reach  a  considerable 
stage  of  development ;  while  chemistry,  and 
the  biological  sciences,  which  underlie  medi- 
cine, and  also  agriculture,  have  now  a  long 
period  of  development  behind  them.  But  psy- 
chology and  sociology,  the  contributions  of 
which  are  fundamental  to  a  science  of  edu- 
cation, are  themselves  as  yet  undeveloped  and 
indefinite. 

But  sufficient  progress  has  been  made  in 
the  evolution  of  the  "  new  education  "  to  con- 
vince nearly  all  careful  students  that  the  old 
order  has  already  been  largely  outgrown.  The 
demands  of  contemporary  society  for  a  more 
purposeful,  a  more  comprehensive,  and  a  more 
efficient  system  of  preparing  the  young  for 
adult  life,  are  insistent  and  of  increasing  de- 


6  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

finiteness.  Confidence  in  the  dogmas  and 
customary  practices  of  the  older  education  is 
steadily  lessening.  Forces  outside  the  field  of 
education  altogether  are  compelling  a  variety 
of  readjustments  in  its  aims  and  methods. 
Among  educators  themselves  the  disposition 
grows  to  regard  education  as  a  suitable  field 
for  experimental  effort  and  systematic  inquiry. 
They  are  no  less  ready  than  the  critics  outside 
the  profession  to  share  in  the  deliberate  chal- 
lenging of  long  established  doctrines. 

A  widespread  development  of  the  new  edu- 
cation must  prove  a  very  difficult  matter. 
Not  only  are  scientific  foundations  in  psychol- 
ogy and  sociology  as  yet  insufficiently  devel- 
oped; experimentation  along  new  lines  of 
educational  practice  is  beset  with  unusual 
handicaps  of  every  description.  The  respon- 
sibilities of  administering  education  are  com- 
monly so  great  as  to  retard  or  even  to  prevent 
the  growth  of  the  scientific  temper  on  the  part 
of  executive  officers ;  the  public,  while  tolerant 
enough  of  new  hobbies  or  "faith  cures"  in 
education,  is  hostile  to  experimental  effort 


THE  NEW  EDUCATION  7 

as  such ;  while  education  as  a  field  of  human 
enterprise  hardly  attracts  as  yet  the  spirits 
that  delight  in  exploration  and  settlement  in 
new  regions. 

The  present  period  of  transition  in  educa- 
tion, therefore,  presents  problems  of  readjust- 
ment which  are  especially  difficult  to  deal 
with  because  many  changes  must  be  made  at 
a  time  when  our  available  knowledge  is  insuf- 
ficient to  guide  us  aright.  It  has  sometimes 
been  found  necessary  in  American  railroading 
to  build  a  new  bridge,  to  take  the  place  of 
an  old,  while  traffic  continued  to  move  over 
the  rails.  If  we  can  imagine  such  an  under- 
taking imposed  upon  men  who  did  not  pos- 
sess, and  could  not  at  the  time  obtain  access 
to,  the  organized  knowledge  that  governs  in 
bridgebuilding,  we  should  then  have  a  situa- 
tion somewhat  analogous  to  that  which  pre- 
vails in  contemporary  public  education  in 
America  when  institutions  dealing  with  nearly 
20,000,000  young  persons,  employing  about 
500,000  public  servants  and  expending  annu- 
ally nearly  $500,000,000,  must,  on  the  basis 


8  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

of  little-tested  knowledge,  be  transformed  to 
meet  the  requirements  of  a  new  and  complex 
social  order. 

The  conditions  which  give  rise  to  the  de- 
mand for  a  new  education  are  not  unlike  those 
which  are  forcing  transformations  in  religion, 
in  government,  in  international  relations,  in 
the  social  side  of  industry,  in  the  administra- 
tion of  justice,  and  in  the  family  relationship. 
Profounder  insight,  on  the  one  hand,  and 
greater  sensitiveness  to  human  deficiency,  on 
the  other,  —  these  are  the  twin  forces  every- 
where operative  in  convincing  men  that  human 
incapacity,  suffering,  and  waste  can  be  reduced, 
and  life  be  made  better  through  the  more  pur- 
poseful use  of  such  scientific  knowledge  as 
every  day  becomes  more  accessible. 

However  lacking  we  may  still  be  in  detailed 
knowledge  as  to  how  the  demands  upon  the 
new  education  are  to  be  met,  the  broad  lines 
of  the  readjustments  that  will  have  to  be  made 
are  now  evident.  The  older  education  was  a 
social  agency  having  fairly  well-defined  aims, 
a  limited  adaptability,  and  fixed  methods  em- 


THE  NEW  EDUCATION  9 

pirically  derived;  and  it  had  evolved  an  ad- 
ministrative organization  suited  to  its  scope 
and  purposes.  The  new  education  will  obviously 
have  to  possess  far  wider  and  more  purposeful 
aims ;  its  range  of  adaptability  will,  of  necessity, 
be  immeasurably  greater;  its  methods  must 
rest  on  a  scientific  basis ;  and  its  organization 
must  become  complex  and  flexible  in  order  to 
produce  an  efficient  combination  of  democratic 
control  and  technical  direction.  In  each  of  these 
directions  a  wide  range  of  problems  is  certain 
to  be  encountered,  some  of  which  are  even  now 
capable  of  being  formulated  and  examined. 

The  aims  and  scope  of  the  new  education  must 
be  defined  in  terms  of  social  economy  as  that 
subject  is  coming  to  be  conceived.  The  words 
"social  economy"  are  now  employed  to  de- 
scribe comprehensively  the  numerous  studies 
and  practices  which  deal  consciously  with  the 
practical  problems  of  reducing  suffering  and 
waste  of  life,  and  of  promoting  human  well- 
being.  Society,  developing  self-consciousness, 
and  aided  by  various  forms  of  available  scien- 


10  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

tific  knowledge,  finds  an  enlarging  field  of 
opportunity  for  the  promotion  of  human  wel- 
fare by  the  application  of  tested  knowledge 
to  a  great  variety  of  social  conditions  and 
through  many  agencies.  Prevention  and  cure 
of  disease  by  concerted  action,  control  of  the 
conditions  giving  rise  to  crime  and  moral  de- 
linquency, improvement  of  the  conditions  of 
labor,  furtherance  of  the  agencies  making  for 
culture,  civic  idealism,  and  economic  efliciency 
— these  are  but  a  few  of  the  phases  of  con- 
scious social  action  comprehended  under  the 
phrase  "social  economy." 

All  experience  is  proving  conclusively  that 
the  best  purposes  of  an  efficient  social  econ- 
omy are  to  be  realized  through  processes  that 
are  essentially  educational  —  that  is,  by  the 
conscious  control  of  the  formation  of  habits, 
of  the  development  of  ideals,  and  of  the  im- 
parting of  knowledge  during  the  immature 
period  of  the  lives  of  those  who  are  yet  to 
carry  the  full  responsibilities  of  citizenship. 
Education,  then,  is  a  phase,  and  a  large  phase, 
of  social  economy. 


THE  NEW  EDUCATION  11 

But  this  interpretation  of  education  operates 
inevitably  to  modify  in  far-reaching  ways  the 
prevailing  conceptions  as  to  educational  aims, 
and  especially  those  aims  which  should  govern 
in  that  educational  agency  called  the  school. 

For  it  now  becomes  clear  that  there  are  many 
agencies  which,  with  more  or  less  conscious- 
ness of  purpose,  are  concerned  in  education. 
The  home,  the  church,  the  workshop,  and  the 
playground  are  the  most  ancient  of  these; 
while  the  stage,  the  press,  the  club,  and  the 
library  are  also  potent  under  modern  condi- 
tions. But  in  America  none  of  the  foregoing 
is  in  any  substantial  degree  under  the  direct 
control  of  that  social  agency  which  expresses 
the  collective  will  of  all,  namely,  the  State. 
Each  is  private  or  corporate  in  character  and 
subject  to  influences  which  may  reduce  or 
nullify  its  better  educational  possibilities. 

The  public  school  is  to-day  the  chief  agency 
to  which  society  must  turn  in  its  efforts  to 
realize  the  more  far-reaching  aims  of  the 
newer  education.  It  is  socially  expedient  and 
necessary  that  all  educational  purposes  which 


12  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

other  agencies  will  not  voluntarily  assume 
shall  be  realized  in  and  by  the  public  school 
in  some  form ;  and  the  extent  to  which  this  re- 
sponsibility shall  be  taken  over  by  the  schools 
must,  apparently,  increase  steadily. 

If  the  home  fails  to  give  instruction  in  hy- 
giene essential  to  the  requirements  of  whole- 
some and  sanitary  living,  as  these  are  now 
understood,  then  the  school  may  be  expected 
to  assume  this  function.  If  the  farm  and  the 
workshop  cannot  do  what  they  once  did  in  fit- 
ting young  people  to  perform  productive  work 
efficiently,  then  schools  under  public  support 
and  control  will  certainly  be  created  for  this 
purpose.  If  the  street  and  vacant  lot  prove 
ineffective  or  harmful  as  agencies  for  the  edu- 
cation to  be  realized  through  play,  then  cor- 
responding facilities  will  be  developed  under 
the  oversight  of  some  form  of  public  school. 
If,  for  certain  groups,  the  church  proves  un- 
equal to  the  problems  of  education  in  higher 
forms  of  idealism,  then  sooner  or  later  we  shall 
find  society  requiring  that  the  public  schools 
shall  discover  ways  of  doing  the  needed  work. 


THE  NEW  EDUCATION  13 

If  press  and  stage  prove,  under  private  and 
commercial  control,  but  sorry  educational 
agencies,  then  it  will  be  inevitable  that  a  so- 
ciety, desirous  of  keeping  pure  the  fountains 
of  early  insight  and  ideals,  will  demand  that 
the  public  school  discover  ways  of  providing 
substitute  or  countervailing  influences. 

The  last  half-century  has  witnessed  in  all 
civilized  countries  an  enormous  enlargement 
of  the  functions  of  the  public  school.  Much 
of  this  has  been  opposed  and  misunderstood 
because  the  underlying  conditions  have  not 
been  fully  comprehended  or  have  failed  to  win 
ready  acceptance.  As  the  various  sciences  have 
developed,  the  importance  of  using  the  schools 
as  means  of  diffusing  the  knowledge  thus  or- 
ganized has  been  slowly  realized.  As  the  desir- 
ability of  giving  all  -persons  some  acquaint- 
ance with  art,  literature,  and  history  has 
asserted  itself  in  conjunction  with  the  shaping 
of  the  ideals  of  democratic  society,  the  school 
has  offered  itself  or  has  been  drafted  for  this 
purpose.  As  the  changing  home  finds  itself 
less  favorably  placed  to  give  varied  and  con- 


14  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

Crete  introductions  to  the  vocational  arts,  the 
demand  that  the  school  assume  this  responsi- 
bility becomes  insistent. 

What  are  the  probable  limits  of  this  dele- 
gation of  responsibility  and  function  to  the 
school  ?  That  is  one  of  the  unsolved  problems 
of  modern  social  economy.  But  some  phases  of 
the  situation  are  now  intelligible.  The  school, 
from  being  a  rival  and  competing  educational 
force,  must,  in  the  new  order,  become  a  con- 
sciously complementary,  and  deliberately  co- 
operating, agency.  The  school  of  the  older 
organization  often  played  at  cross-purposes 
with  the  home;  it  disparaged  the  education 
to  be  found  in  the  workshop  devoted  to  pro- 
ductive activity;  in  recent  years  it  often  sep- 
arated itself  sharply  from  the  church;  and  it 
ignored  or  antagonized  such  educational  forces 
as  playground,  press,  and  stage.  The  school 
of  the  past  doubtless  found  it  necessary  and 
desirable  to  take  this  position  in  order  that  it 
might,  thus  fortified  by  its  exclusiveness, 
achieve  its  best  results. 

But  such  a  condition  can  no  longer  persist. 


THE  NEW  EDUCATION  15 

It  is  out  of  harmony  with  the  prevailing  con- 
ceptions and  the  requirements  of  an  effective 
social  economy.  It  is  wasteful  of  human 
energy,  and  it  nullifies  the  hest  of  educational 
endeavors.  It  leads  to  no  organic  constructive 
policy. 

In  the  new  education,  the  school  must  com- 
prehend its  position  and  responsibilities  as 
one  of  several  educational  agencies,  each  ca- 
pable of  functions  which  the  other  cannot 
effectively  perform ;  but  it  must  be  perceived 
that  the  school  has  a  peculiar  responsibility, 
perhaps  superior  to  that  of  any  of  the  other 
agencies.  In  the  school,  the  educational  pro- 
cess must  be  visioned  as  a  whole;  and  from 
the  school  must  radiate  the  influences  which 
will  invigorate  and  direct  the  educational 
activities  of  other  institutions.  Hence,  the 
school  must  cooperate  actively,  sympatheti- 
cally, and  purposefully  with  the  home,  the 
church,  the  shop,  the  playground,  the  press, 
the  stage,  the  club,  and  the  library  in  their 
efforts  to  shape  youth  into  serviceable  man- 
hood and  womanhood.  Society  is  manifesting 


16  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

a  growing  tendency  not  only  to  place  upon 
the  school  responsibility  for  the  discharge  of 
such  desirable  educational  functions  as  other 
agencies  cannot  or  will  not  perform;  it  is 
also  making  the  school,  in  a  sense,  the  final 
custodian  on  behalf  of  the  State  of  the  child's 
educational  well-being.  In  the  school  will  un- 
doubtedly develop  those  supplemental  agencies 
designed,  in  the  case  of  limited  classes  of  de- 
fective, delinquent,  and  otherwise  exceptional 
children,  to  make  up  for  the  deficiencies  of 
other  educational  agencies.  Here  also  will 
center  those  other  forms  of  oversight  and 
direction  designed  to  compel  needful  action 
on  the  part  of  private  and  corporate  agencies, 
where  these  touch  and  influence  the  develop- 
ment of  childhood. 

It  will  be  no  small  problem,  in  this  con- 
nection, to  prevent  the  school  from  unduly 
aggrandizing  educational  authority.  So  to  re- 
adjust its  attitude  as  to  give  full  scope,  with 
sympathetic  cooperation,  to  other  agencies 
will  not  be  easy  in  view  of  the  historic  atti- 
tude of  educators.  Nevertheless,  we  read  even 


THE  NEW  EDUCATION  17 

now  of  school  credit  being  given  for  work  of 
a  useful  nature  performed  at  home;  of  agri- 
cultural schools  in  which  the  practical  work 
is  done  on  the  "home  farm";  of  "part  time" 
arrangements  between  shop  and  school  for 
vocational  training ;  of  vacation  reading  being 
required  and  counted  towards  college  credit; 
of  home  practice  in  hygiene  being  purpose- 
fully integrated  with  school  instruction  in 
that  subject;  of  physical  work  of  a  service- 
able nature  being  accepted  in  lieu  of  gym- 
nasium training;  of  wage-earning  employ- 
ment being  required  as  a  necessary  phase  in 
completing  courses  in  commercial  training; 
and  of  cooperation  between  the  school  and 
the  theater  to  the  ends  that  the  two  forces 
may  reinforce  each  other.  These  manifesta- 
tions but  foreshadow  the  more  varied  develop- 
ments which  are  surely  destined  to  appear 
when  the  larger  educational  vision  shall  de- 
velop. 

Having  defined  its  aims  in  terms  of  a  sound 
social   economy,   and    having    differentiated 


18  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

among  various  educational  agencies  as  to  the 
scope  and  character  of  their  respective  con- 
tributions to  the  totality  of  the  educational 
process,  the  new  education  encounters  a  vari- 
ety of  problems  of  adaptation  among  the  in- 
dividuals and  groups  of  individuals  with  whom 
it  deals.  The  older  education  had  a  limited 
field  of  vision  as  to  the  social  need  it  was  to 
serve ;  its  aims  were  relatively  narrow,  specific, 
and  immediate.  In  the  schools  it  ministered 
in  the  main  to  a  restricted  social  class ;  hence, 
its  programs  were  uniform  and  lacking  in 
flexibility. 

The  large  problem  of  social  economy,  as 
expressed  in  the  ideals  of  democracy,  is  to 
enable  each  individual  to  make  the  most  of 
himself,  while  at  the  same  time  contributing 
in  as  large  degree  as  possible  to  the  general 
well-being.  There  are  distinct  limits  of  an 
economic  nature,  however,  to  the  social  obli- 
gation to  educate  and  otherwise  to  assist  each 
individual  towards  self-realization.  Moreover, 
it  is  certain  that  individuals  vary  enormously 
among  themselves  as  to  their  inheritance  of 


THE  NEW  EDUCATION  19 

capacities  for  the  attainment  of  skill,  insight, 
and  ideal.  As  the  possible  scope  and  purposes 
of  education  increase,  the  boundaries  of  soci- 
ety's obligations  on  the  one  hand  and  the  in- 
dividual's capacities  on  the  other  come  into 
view.  A  uniform  program  of  education  is  no 
longer  possible.  To  an  indefinite  extent  pro- 
grams must  be  adapted  to  varying  groups. 

Here  we  distinguish  the  subnormal  in  in- 
tellect and  we  modify  programs  of  training  to 
their  needs.  We  shall  yet  do  much  also  to 
assist  the  supernormal  to  outmarch  our  slow- 
footed  courses  of  study.  Again,  we  discover 
varying  tastes  and  deep-seated  interests,  sug- 
gesting the  possibilities  of  enriching  society 
by  the  cultivation  of  special  talents.  We  find 
many  youths  in  need  of  systematic  training 
for  vocational  competency  —  an  education 
which  can  only  be  given  by  public  schools ; 
but  vocational  education  must  be  as  varied  as 
are  the  occupations  demanding  skill  and  tech- 
nical knowledge.  The  multiplicity  of  subjects 
has  become  so  great  within  the  field  of  the 
traditional  school  program  as  to  force  sec- 


20  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

ondary  school  and  college  to  provide  endless 
forms  of  adaptation  by  allowing  election  of 
studies. 

Below  the  college  and  secondary  school  is 
to  be  found  as  yet  but  slight  adaptation  in 
courses  of  study;  but  it  is  inevitable  that 
great  flexibility  should  develop  here  as  well. 
This  will  not  be  confined  to  the  field  com- 
monly occupied  by  the  so-called  school  studies; 
it  must  extend  into  the  as  yet  slightly  explored 
regions  of  physical,  moral,  and  vocational 
education. 

It  is  sometimes  urged  that  the  demands  of 
democracy  require  uniformity  of  educational 
program.  There  must  be  no  class  education, 
as  in  Europe,  it  is  said.  This  attitude  reflects 
the  influence  of  certain  famous  misunderstand- 
ings of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and 
of  the  motto  of  Revolutionary  France.  In  na- 
tive capacity  and  in  educational  need  people 
are  unequal  at  birth  and  can  in  no  way  be 
made  equal.  An  educational  system,  suited  to 
the  needs  of  democracy,  must  be  indefinitely 
flexible  in  order  that  each  may  have  before 


THE  NEW  EDUCATION  21 

him  the  educational  opportunities  which  shall 
enable  him  best  to  serve  society  and  himself. 
They  who  oppose  the  establishment  of  effective 
trade  schools  because  they  suspect  that  these 
tend  to  create  class  distinctions  forget  what 
sharp  class  distinctions  are  even  now  enforced 
by  uniform  programs  of  studies  appealing  only 
to  those  possessing  unusual  powers  of  abstract 
thinking. 

A  flexible  system  of  education,  indefinitely 
varied  to  meet  the  needs  of  different  groups, 
must,  of  course,  in  a  democratic  society,  simply 
establish  open  doors  of  opportunity.  The  son 
of  the  washerwoman  must  be  able  to  go  to  the 
university  if  his  talents  justify  it ;  and  equally 
the  son  of  the  banker  should  be  able  to  find 
his  field  of  opportunity  in  a  trade  school,  if  his 
interests  lie  in  that  direction.  Prescription  and 
forced  classification  there  must  of  necessity 
be ;  but  only  as  determined  by  the  incapacity 
of  the  individual  to  profit  from  a  given  type 
of  opportunity.  Such  forced  classification  now 
prevails  extensively  in  our  undemocratic  school 
system,  and  is  the  more  indefensible  because 


22     EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

of  the  limited  range  of  educational  opportunity 
offered  in  contemporary  secondary  schools  and 
colleges.  No  extension  of  the  range  and  scope 
of  educational  opportunity  can  operate  to  in- 
tensify class  distinctions  as  these  now  prevail 
in  America.  A  flexible  system  of  educational 
opportunities  will  have  the  opposite  effect. 

To  teachers  and  to  those  engaged  in  the 
training  of  teachers,  the  most  interesting  and 
at  the  same  time  most  difficult  of  the  problems 
of  the  new  education  are  to  be  found  in  con- 
nection with  the  developments  of  effective 
methods  of  teaching,  after  general  aims  and 
questions  of  adaptation  have  been  measurably 
settled. 

Every  person,  in  greater  or  less  degree,  pos- 
sesses an  instinct  for  teaching ;  while  among 
every  people  at  every  period  there  exists  a  vast 
body  of  teaching  customs  which  are  readily 
transmitted  from  generation  to  generation. 
Under  the  conditions  which  prevailed  until 
very  recently,  the  combination  of  the  teach- 
ing instinct  with  prevailing  customs  sufficed 


THE  NEW  EDUCATION  23 

to  give  a  body  of  teaching  methods  sufficient 
for  the  existing  needs  of  education  in  home, 
church,  and  school. 

But  the  methods  thus  developed  (the  word 
covers  methods  of  organizing  known  bodies 
of  knowledge  and  experience  for  teaching  pur- 
poses as  well  as  actual  method  of  presentation) 
were,  naturally,  unscientific ;  they  lacked  flex- 
ibility, and  especially  they  were  unadapted 
to  the  carrying-out  of  the  nicer  adjustments 
demanded  when  broader  educational  aims  de- 
veloped. 

It  was  long  ago  evident  to  such  educa- 
tional geniuses  as  Comenius,  Rousseau,  and 
Froebel  that  in  education,  no  less  than  in  other 
forms  of  human  activity,  where  custom  played 
a  large  part,  the  letter  was  always  in  danger 
of  being  allowed  to  kill  the  spirit.  Form  was 
ever  tending  to  take  the  place  of  substance. 
Methods  of  educating,  taking  their  start  in 
some  period  of  rapid  change,  soon  grew  stereo- 
typed and  rigid.  Modes  of  practice,  inspired 
and  projected  by  great  leaders,  were  taken  up 
by  cults  composed  of  persons  unable  fully  to 


24  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

apprehend  them,  and  soon  degenerated  into 
crystallized  forms  and  ceremonies. 

It  is  now  apparent  that  for  the  new  educa- 
tion, teaching  methods  transmitted  as  custom 
products  (social  habits)  will  not  suffice.  It 
matters  not  that  these  should  owe  their  origins 
to  the  genius  of  a  leader,  rather  than  to  the 
selective  action  of  time.  So  innumerable  are 
the  adjustments  required  by  the  new  educa- 
tion, on  account  of  its  varied  aims  and  possible 
adaptations,  that  only  a  body  of  method,  based 
on  a  scientific  study  of  the  processes  of  the 
learning  mind  of  the  child  as  a  practical  reality, 
will  suffice. 

Efforts  to  evolve  new  and  better  methods 
on  a  basis  of  insight  into  the  learning  processes 
have  given  rise  to  much  of  the  educational 
unrest  of  recent  years.  Naturally,  the  con- 
servatives in  education,  like  those  in  religion, 
politics,  industry,  and  elsewhere,  prefer  the 
established  custom  procedures  and  resent  all 
attempts  to  evaluate  old  methods  and  to  de- 
vise new  ones.  Nevertheless,  some  progress  is 
being  made,  some  of  it  due  to  the  "  trial  and 


THE  NEW  EDUCATION  25 

success  "  methods  stimulated  by  loss  of  faith 
in  old  ways,  and  some  of  it  due  to  newly  ac- 
quired knowledge  of  child  nature.  We  may 
say  roughly  that  the  program  of  primary  edu- 
cation has  already  been  materially  modified  by 
the  newer  methods,  while  in  the  more  advanced 
grades  and  in  the  secondary  school  there  has 
been  a  profound  disturbance  of  thought  and 
attitude,  but  as  yet  little  of  practical  accom- 
plishment. 

The  most  marked  feature  of  the  newer  de- 
velopments in  this  field  is  the  discovery  that 
the  older  education  had  formulated  all  its  con- 
scious methods  of  teaching  on  one  plane  of 
learning  capacity.  All  its  music  was  composed, 
if  the  figure  may  be  permitted,  in  one  key. 
Subject-matter  was  organized  to  be  memorized 
or  learned  by  rote ;  and  where  the  ends  aimed 
at  did  not  permit  this,  as  in  penmanship,  the 
drill  methods  employed  were  strictly  analogous 
to  those  of  memorization.  All  subjects  were 
taught  in  the  same  general  way,  and  the  only 
available  means  of  testing  learning  consisted 
in  examining  memorization.  Rarely  was  it 


26  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

thought  necessary  or  deemed  possible  to  go 
deeper  and  to  test  the  actual  functioning  of 
knowledge  or  habit  in  terms  of  life's  larger 
utilities. 

To  many  other  processes  of  education,  now 
consciously  recognized,  the  older  education 
indeed  made  contributions ;  but  in  an  almost 
wholly  unorganized  and  methodless  way. 
Education  through  play,  the  self-active  quest 
of  knowledge,  the  subtle  influence  of  sugges- 
tion in  numberless  directions,  the  upbuilding 
of  ideals  —  these  had  their  place ;  but  on 
these  planes  of  learning,  there  existed  no  text- 
books or  teachers'  manuals,  no  approved  de- 
vices and  methods,  no  testing  of  results. 

It  should  not  be  a  matter  of  surprise  that 
in  the  general  field  of  method  the  new  educa- 
tion is  encountering  so  many  problems  of  re- 
adjustment. In  a  subsequent  chapter  attention 
will  be  called  to  the  probability  that,  as  be- 
tween the  methods  of  teaching  based  on  forced 
memorization  and  drill,  and  those  utilizing  self- 
activity  in  large  measure,  there  is  a  subtle  but 
real  opposition.  If  such  is  the  case,  the  new  me- 


THE  NEW  EDUCATION  27 

thods  must  in  many  cases  be  something  vastly 
different  from  mere  refinements  of  the  old. 
They  must  be  differently  grounded  and  derived. 
The  new  education  will  no  more  be  satisfied 
with  reliance  upon  a  blind  instinct  of  teaching 
in  affecting  the  deeper  reaches  of  the  child's 
life  than  is  modern  medicine  satisfied  with 
only  the  instincts  of  tenderness,  sympathy,  and 
self-sacrifice  in  the  nurse.  Education  through 
play,  through  the  influence  of  personality,  and 
through  giving  scope  to  the  creative  capaci- 
ties will  require  its  own  basal  methods  no  less 
than  that  other  education  which,  in  seeking 
results  in  the  teaching  of  spelling,  multipli- 
cation tables,  and  grammar,  has  produced  the 
methods  of  drill  and  memorization.  But  such 
methods  must  be  based  on  scientific  insight 
no  less  than  are  the  nurses'  conceptions  of 
aseptic  cleanliness.  The  new  education  has  as 
one  of  its  large  obligations  to  discover  the 
various  foundations  of  educational  method. 

We  may,  finally,  consider  the  readjustments 
necessary  in  the  public  administration  of  the 


28  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

new  education.  For,  whatever  be  our  convic- 
tions as  to  the  proper  sphere  of  government, 
we  must  admit  that  a  large  and  probably  in- 
creasing part  of  education  will  have  to  be  car- 
ried on  as  a  public  enterprise.  Public  funds 
will  be  required  to  support  it;  and  public  di- 
rection and  control  must  follow  the  employ- 
ment of  public  funds. 

But  the  administration  of  education  by  the 
State  presents  features  of  a  peculiar  character. 
Evidently,  expert  service  will  be  more  and 
more  needed ;  but  equally  an  intimate  union 
of  education  with  public  sentiment  and  opin- 
ion will  always  be  required.  In  the  adminis- 
tration of  public  education,  therefore,  we  find 
that  the  pressing  problems  of  democracy  are 
acutely  in  evidence. 

No  system  of  public  education  can  long  re- 
main vital  and  effective  if  it  does  not  have  an 
intelligent  and  approving  public  opinion  sup- 
porting it.  The  citizen's  money  must  support 
the  schools  ;  a  large  part  of  the  time  and  hap- 
piness, as  well  as  sometimes  the  health  and 
future  possibilities,  of  his  children  are  in  the 


THE  NEW  EDUCATION  29 

custody  of  the  teachers;  and  it  is  probable 
that  the  school  will  assert  its  responsibility  in 
requiring  that  home  education  shall  also  be 
effective.  Complex  relations  of  this  kind  are 
possible  only  when  intimate  mutual  under- 
standing and  confidence  prevail.  Democratic 
society  seeks  to  procure  these  conditions  by 
localizing  the  administration  of  public  edu- 
cation, by  giving  the  popular  will  free  scope 
in  selecting  representatives  on  lay  governing 
bodies,  and  by  giving  such  laymen  large  au- 
thority over  teachers  and  school  practices. 

But  the  new  education  cannot  develop  with- 
out expert  service  and  the  conditions  which 
make  expert  service  possible.  Teachers  must 
not  only  be  well  trained  for  their  work ;  they 
must  be,  as  far  as  practicable,  chosen  from 
the  ablest  members  of  the  community;  and 
they  should  work  under  conditions  which  make 
effectiveness  possible.  Teaching  must  become 
a  profession,  and  an  attractive  profession. 
Proper  selection  of  candidates  for  teaching, 
proper  training,  proper  compensation,  proper 
tenure,  proper  freedom  from  unwarranted  in- 


30  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

terference — these  are  but  a  few  of  the  con- 
ditions essential  to  the  expert  direction  of  the 
new  education. 

Can  democratic  government  produce  these 
conditions?  Can  popular  control  resist  the 
tendencies  of  professions  to  become  bureau- 
cratic and  to  alienate  themselves  from  popular 
demands? 

It  is  evident  that  to  achieve  the  ends  of  ef- 
fective administration,  the  new  education  will 
necessitate  many  readjustments  of  prevailing 
practices.  Some  of  these  are  discussed  in  a 
subsequent  chapter.  Here  it  only  remains  to 
point  out  that  to  administer  public  education 
successfully  will  bring  into  relief  and  perhaps 
contribute  to  the  solution  of  the  problems  of 
an  expert,  specialized  service,  working  under 
and  leading  the  popular  will.  Public  education 
will  require  its  expert  service ;  but  this  expert 
service  must  of  necessity  be  capable  of  edu- 
cating not  merely  the  children  of  each  gener- 
ation, but  the  generation  itself.  Educators 
must  interpret  their  problems  in  terms  of  so- 
ciety as  a  whole.  They  must  lead  in  the  de- 


THE  NEW  EDUCATION  31 

velopment  of  chieftainship  for  no  traditional 
or  adventitious  reasons,  but  by  sheer  ability 
to  win  confidence  on  their  own  merits.  Edu- 
cators must  trust  the  public ;  and  they  must 
wisely  fashion  a  public  which  they  can  trust. 
Publicity  is  but  one  of  the  instruments  to  this 
end ;  the  creation  of  active  channels  of  com- 
munication between  specialists  and  laymen  is 
no  less  important. 

We  cannot  now  predict  the  forms  of  organi- 
zation by  means  of  which  a  union  of  the  serv- 
ices of  experts  and  of  the  supporting  attitude 
of  the  public  is  to  be  effected.  It  may  be  that 
for  this  purpose  the  school  will  have  to  be 
regarded  as  the  primary  unit  of  administration 
to  a  greater  extent  than  is  now  the  case.  The 
city  will  require  for  financial  and  other  gen- 
eral management  of  the  schools  a  small  central 
school  board  and  the  highly  specialized  serv- 
ices of  experts ;  but,  because  in  each  school 
are  to  be  gathered  teachers  and  supervising 
specialists,  it  may  prove  expedient  to  create, 
for  the  district  served  by  such  a  school  com- 
mittee, a  council,  representing  lay  interests 


32  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

and  capable  of  being  made  a  means  of  diffus- 
ing knowledge  regarding  the  aims,  needs,  and 
achievement  of  the  school.  By  devices  of  this 
nature,  it  may  prove  possible  to  realize  the 
cooperation  which  is  indispensable  to  an  ef- 
ficient system  of  modern  schools  serving  in, 
and  supported  by,  a  democracy. 


II 

THE  NEW  BASIS  OF  METHOD 

THE  study  of  the  art  and  science  of  educa- 
tion to-day  involves,  among  other  phases,  con- 
sideration of  the  learning  processes  as  these 
are  connected  with  the  various  subjects  making 
up  the  curricula  of  our  schools.  The  study  of 
method  may  be  approached  from  either  one  of 
two  standpoints.  On  the  one  hand,  in  connec- 
tion with  the  organization  of  the  content  and 
in  the  development  of  devices  of  presentation 
of  the  special  subjects,  such  as  the  mechanics 
of  reading,  number  work,  writing,  chemistry, 
French,  drawing,  and  the  others,  we  obtain 
the  studies  of  special  method ;  on  the  other 
hand,  when  the  educational  process  is  viewed 
less  with  reference  to  the  mastery  of  special 
subjects  and  more  with  reference  to  the  physi- 
ological and  psychological  processes  involved, 
we  have  general  method.  In  the  former  case 
the  peculiar  characteristics  of  various  forms  of 


34  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

subject-matter  largely  determine  method ;  in 
the  latter,  the  main  influence  comes  from  a 
consideration  of  the  educational  ends  to  be 
attained,  as  these  may  be  expressed  in  terms 
of  habits  to  be  formed,  appreciations  to  be 
stimulated,  knowledge  to  be  acquired,  and 
ideals  to  be  developed.  A  study  of  the  learn- 
ing process,  when  special  method  is  under  con- 
sideration, tends  to  expend  its  effort  on  sub- 
ject-matter ;  while  the  influence  of  the  study 
of  general  method  is  to  emphasize  the  powers 
and  processes  of  the  learner  himself. 

Historically  it  would  seem  to  be  true,  except 
at  rare  intervals,  that  the  development  of  the 
art  of  teaching  tended  to  center  about  the 
thing  which  it  was  deemed  desirable  to  have 
the  child  learn.  Hence  the  processes  of  trial, 
experiment,  and  selection  have  tended  to  pro- 
duce an  elaborate  body  of  method  —  method 
of  organization  of  subject-matter  as  well  as 
method  of  presentation  —  in  connection  with 
each  one  of  the  studies.  Each  division  of 
mathematics,  each  phase  of  the  study  of  the 
vernacular,  writing,  drawing,  Latin,  manual 


THE  NEW  BASIS  OF  METHOD  36 

training,  history,  each  one  of  the  sciences  — 
in  every  case  we  find  a  more  or  less  detailed 
and  elaborated  methodology.  And  running 
through  it  all  we  find  one  prominent  charac- 
teristic :  the  organization  of  subjects  for  teach- 
ing purposes  seems  to  have  been  effected  by 
mature  and  scholarly  minds  which  have  made 
but  grudging  acknowledgment  that  the  limita- 
tions and  peculiarities  of  the  child  mind  might 
have  to  be  taken  into  account  in  making  the 
learning  process  most  effective.  Only  seldom, 
historically  speaking,  have  textbooks  been  writ- 
ten or  other  organizations  of  the  subject-matter 
of  special  studies  been  produced  by  those  who, 
either  by  virtue  of  keen  sympathy  and  intui- 
tion, or  even  owing  to  long  experience,  could 
enter  easily  into  the  interests,  capacities,  and 
points  of  view  of  children.  And  it  must  be 
remembered  that  it  has  been  chiefly  in  the 
organization  of  the  special  subjects  that,  in 
the  past,  conscious  method  manifested  itself. 
Note  how  the  adult  and  scholarly  mind  has 
worked  in  producing  the  teaching  organiza- 
tions of  the  special  school  subjects.  In  propor- 


36  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

tion  as  knowledge  has  developed  in  each  sub- 
ject, underlying  principles  have  come  into  view 
and  logical  system  has  developed.  Through 
long  experience  and  study  the  mature  mind 
comes  to  grasp  the  general  outlines  and  prin- 
ciples of  a  study,  and,  having  found  a  few 
simple  keys  to  the  whole,  which  simplifies  it 
for  him,  he  immediately  assumes  that  such 
order  should  be  most  effective  in  teaching 
children.  Not  many  years  ago  the  student  of 
script  letters  was  able  to  discern  a  few  simple 
elements  of  which  nearly  all  the  letters  were 
composed.  What  more  natural  than  that  a 
scheme  of  penmanship  teaching  (now  happily 
obsolete)  should  be  developed  which  would 
involve  as  the  central  feature  of  its  method 
the  complete  preliminary  mastery  of  these 
elements  ?  Again,  it  is  found  that  drawing  in 
many  of  its  phases  involves  the  application  of 
a  few  elemental  forms ;  and,  naturally,  systems 
of  drawing  for  children  have  been  developed 
which  require  that  years  shall  be  spent  in  drill 
on  these  elemental  forms.  The  varied  pro- 
cesses of  applied  arithmetic  may  be  compre- 


THE  NEW  BASIS  OF  METHOD  37 

bended  in  a  small  number  of  fundamental 
rules ;  tbe  complexity  of  machines  may  be  re- 
solved into  six  or  even  two  fundamental  forms ; 
the  study  of  the  plant  world  may  be  approached 
through  the  classifications  which  order  and 
simplify  it;  and  so  on  for  each  subject  which 
enters  into  the  schools.  And  in  each  case  that 
logical  order  inherent  in  the  subject  has  been 
seized  upon  by  the  adult  maker  of  schemes 
of  study  as  giving  the  most  effective  basis  of 
method  for  teaching  purposes. 

So  long  as  teachers  failed  to  study  the  learn- 
ing process  as  conditioned  partly  by  the  limi- 
tations and  peculiar  powers  of  the  child's  mind, 
it  was  natural  that  this  should  be  true.  To  the 
discoverer  and  admirer  of  organization  in  the 
various  divisions  of  knowledge,  it  was  inevit- 
able to  think  of  these  as  exhibiting  the  most 
effective  way  for  the  young  learner.  If  all 
penmanship  may  be  reduced  to  a  half-dozen 
fundamental  forms,  why  not  secure  the  mas- 
tery of  these  at  the  outset  ?  If  all  reading  in- 
volves the  alphabet,  and  the  ability  to  unite 
its  members  into  untold  numbers  of  meaning- 


38  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

ful  and  meaningless  syllables,  why  not  give 
the  first  two  or  three  years  to  drill  on  letters 
and  syllables  ?  If  the  mastery  of  tool  processes 
seems  to  involve,  sooner  or  later,  a  limited 
number  of  detailed  and  very  special  types  of 
skill,  why  not  strive  for  these  at  the  outset, 
as  has  been  done  in  certain  types  of  manual 
training?  There  have  been  times  when  the 
study  of  a  foreign  language  began  and  con- 
tinued long  with  its  grammar ;  when  the  study 
of  literature  was  mostly  a  study  of  the  lives  of 
authors  and  lists  of  their  work ;  when  the  study 
of  music,  at  least  in  the  schools,  was  mainly  a 
study  of  the  written  technique  of  music ;  when 
the  study  of  history  was  an  attempted  mastery 
of  the  dates  and  the  far-reaching  generaliza- 
tions of  history.  We  have  seen  the  study  of 
physics  by  beginners  confined  mainly  to  tasks 
in  quantitative  work,  because  the  mature  mind 
finds  quantitative  method  so  serviceable.  Not 
long  since  the  teaching  of  biology  by  many 
teachers  was  organized  on  the  basis  of  a  logical 
system  beginning  with  the  most  elemental 
forms.  While  it  may  not  be  true  that  all  of 


THE  NEW  BASIS  OF  METHOD  39 

our  studies  still  exhibit  these  vices  at  their 
worst,  it  may  well  be  questioned  whether  the 
studies  as  we  have  them  organized  for  chil- 
dren, especially  in  the  upper  elementary  grades 
and  secondary  schools,  are  not  even  yet  prim- 
arily determined  in  their  method  by  logical 
and  other  considerations  quite  external  to  the 
intrinsic  capacities  of  the  learner  himself. 

On  the  other  hand,  when  the  educator  tends 
to  study  the  learning  processes  largely  apart 
from  special  subjects  of  study  or  apart  from 
the  bias  which  a  too  exclusive  consideration 
of  subject-matter  seems  to  give,  and  more  with 
reference  to  the  child  as  a  self-active  organ- 
ism, developing  in  a  material  and  social  en- 
vironment which  in  itself  is  stimulating  and 
educative,  it  is  natural  that  the  traditional 
school  subjects  should  receive  less  considera- 
tion. For,  under  these  circumstances,  the  edu- 
cator realizes  that,  in  any  environment,  a  large 
part  of  the  sum-total  of  learning  is  quite  inde- 
pendent of  artificial  direction  and  manipula- 
tion. Nature  has  so  equipped  the  child  with 
instincts  and  impulses  that  he  literally  must 


40     EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

learn.  A  thousand  physical  adjustments,  some 
of  them  very  complex,  he  will  learn  even  if 
deprived  of  human  example.  In  the  presence 
of  human  example  the  mere  exercise  of  the 
instincts  of  imitation  and  invention  gives  him 
speech  and  numberless  other  social  habits  and 
appreciations.  During  the  years  ordinarily 
given  to  school  life,  the  youth  will,  if  a  savage, 
or  if  loose  among  his  fellows  and  his  elders, 
acquire  a  vast  range  of  useful  habits,  signifi- 
cant knowledge,  and  influential  ideals.  For  all 
this  learning  no  schools  need  be  provided,  no 
teachers'  salaries  paid,  no  textbooks  or  schemes 
of  study  organized.  Even  more  significant, 
there  are  required  no  long  hours  of  confine- 
ment at  hard  desks,  no  penalties  and  rewards, 
and  no  final  examinations.  It  is  all  part  of 
the  natural  growth  process,  as  spontaneous  as 
the  play  of  animals  or  the  flowering  of  plants. 
Viewing  education  from  this  side,  it  is  na- 
tural that  the  enthusiastic  man  who  is  little 
concerned  with  special  subjects  should  desire 
to  make  all  education  simply  a  somewhat  wider 
and  somewhat  more  directed  form  of  that  edu- 


THE  NEW  BASIS  OF  METHOD  41 

cational  process  which  nature  organized  for 
human  beings  long  before  schools  were  dreamed 
of.  Method,  from  this  standpoint,  becomes 
less  a  matter  of  the  fine  adjustment  of  this  or 
that  bit  of  external  knowledge  or  process  of 
acquiring  skill,  than  of  providing  a  rich  en- 
vironment and  a  field  for  free  expression  of 
native  powers,  to  the  end  that  the  child  will, 
through  sheer  force  of  the  unrestricted,  but 
guided  and  aided,  growth  process,  reach  the 
higher  levels  of  habit,  appreciation,  knowl- 
edge, and  ideal.  Under  the  influence  of  this 
conception,  the  belief  develops  that  in  each 
department  of  human  knowledge  and  attain- 
ment there  is  somewhere  an  order  of  approach 
and  development  which  closely  corresponds  to 
the  natural  growth  process  and  which  is  the 
most  effective  teaching  order  on  the  one  side 
and  learning  order  on  the  other.  The  essence 
of  method,  as  here  conceived,  consists  in  put- 
ting the  child  in  an  environment  of  suitable 
stimuli  and  then  allowing  the  natural  learning 
powers  to  do  their  inevitable  work.  Not  the 
perfect  organization  of  subject-matter  accord- 


42  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

ing  to  logical  schemes,  it  is  asserted,  but  the 
presentation  of  it  in  ways  that  correspond  to 
the  child's  native  powers,  is  the  function  of 
true  educational  method.  If  the  child  has  in- 
herently a  thirst  for  knowledge,  why  may  we 
not  lead  him  into  an  environment  of  knowl- 
edge, geographical,  historical,  or  scientific, 
and  leave  him  free  until  his  natural  demand 
for  aid  in  organizing  it  shall  again  call  on 
us  for  additional  suggestion  ?  If  the  unspoiled 
child  craves  expression  through  speech,  through 
drawing,  and  through  constructive  activities, 
why  should  we  organize  this  or  that  scheme 
which  is  denaturalized  by  adult  experience 
rather  than  provide  him  the  tools,  the  objects, 
and  the  suggestion  which  will  suffice  to  draw 
forth  his  own  activities?  So  questions  the 
theorist  in  this  field,  but  it  must  be  admitted 
that  he  can  as  yet  point  to  no  well-developed 
scheme  of  instruction  based  on  his  theory. 

The  influence  of  this  conception  has,  how- 
ever, been  sufficiently  great  in  recent  years  to 
produce  considerable  modification  in  educa- 
tional method.  In  some  slight  degree  it  has 


THE  NEW  BASIS  OF  METHOD  43 

tended  to  introduce  new  kinds  of  subject- 
matter.  More  important  for  present  purposes, 
it  has  tended  to  affect  the  methods  of  organ- 
izing and  presenting  the  traditional  subjects 
—  for,  after  all,  the  schools  may  not  aim  at 
the  complete  educative  process,  and  their  field 
is  largely  determined  by  the  traditional  or- 
ganizations of  knowledge  and  skill  which  we 
call  subjects  —  and  in  providing  certain  new 
ideas  as  to  educational  aims.  In  much  of  pri- 
mary teaching  the  logical  organization  of  sub- 
ject-matter has  largely  given  way  to  a  teach- 
ing order,  empirically  determined,  which  is 
sometimes  called  psychological  or  natural,  and 
which  is  unquestionably  more  effective  and 
economical.  With  regard  to  the  subjects  more 
adapted  to  older  children  we  hear  it  constantly 
insisted  that  we  must  search  for  a  more  peda- 
gogical order  for  the  reason  that  the  older 
and  more  artificial  order  of  organizing  and 
presenting  subject-matter  fails  to  interest  pu- 
pils, fails  to  produce  a  valuable  permanent 
result,  and  tends  to  bring  school  education 
into  disrepute. 


44  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

It  can  easily  be  shown  that  in  the  primary 
schools  of  to-day  children  are  rarely  taught 
penmanship,  reading,  and  number  according 
to  the  more  strictly  logical  methods  once  in 
vogue.  Drills  on  the  alphabet  and  on  the  ele- 
mental forms  of  letters  as  used  in  writing  are 
not  necessarily  abandoned,  but  they  follow  a 
considerable  time  after  the  pupil's  introduc- 
tion to  printed  and  written  words  as  some- 
thing nearly  allied  to  the  objects  about  which 
he  thinks  and  cares.  Primary  teaching  has 
found  avenues  of  approach  from  the  object, 
through  the  picture  and  other  concrete  repre- 
sentation, and  on  to  the  purely  abstract  sym- 
bol which,  whatever  their  inherent  lack  of 
system,  as  that  appeals  to  the  adult  mind,  con- 
stitute a  far  more  effective  order  for  the  naive 
powers  of  the  young  learner  than  any  which 
preceded.  In  the  teaching  of  drawing  we  are 
now  in  the  midst  of  a  transition  from  the 
logical,  uninteresting,  and,  for  the  majority 
of  children,  less  effective  formal  processes  to 
more  natural  processes  (natural  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  child  learner),  but  which  are  still 


THE  NEW  BASIS  OF  METHOD  45 

experimental.  The  same  transition  is  in  process 
in  manual  work.  It  is  recognized  that  the  child, 
left  to  himself  in  an  environment  that  is  full  of 
suggestion  towards  constructive  activity  due 
to  the  presence  of  tools,  the  opportunity  to 
use  them,  and  the  suggestion  of  elders  at 
work,  becomes  spontaneously  an  imitator  and 
develops  powers  and  interests  which  no  formal 
processes  of  teaching  can  give.  Left  to  him- 
self, the  child  uses  tools,  first  with  little  pur- 
pose, then  in  a  deliberate  attempt  to  realize 
aims  and  projects  partly  due  to  suggestion 
and  partly  due  to  invention.  But,  as  educa- 
tors clearly  see,  the  forms  of  manual  training 
which  have  already  largely  become  traditional 
take  little  account  of  childish  capacities,  and 
derive  their  chief  principles  of  organization  and 
method  from  the  carefully  studied  experiences 
of  mature  workers.  These  forms  of  manual 
training  not  only  do  not  encourage  naive  child- 
ish tendencies,  but  even  flout  them  by  laying 
an  embargo  upon  the  child's  native  desires  to 
experiment  and  to  try  to  make  things  which 
have  for  him  a  genuine  significance  in  use. 


46  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

Recent  developments  in  the  teaching  of 
mathematics  point  also  to  the  influence  of  the 
conception  that  logical  organization  of  subject- 
matter  is  not  a  final  basis  for  the  method  of 
the  teaching  order.  For  it  is  believed  by  the 
proponents  of  the  so-called  Perry  movement 
that  the  central  deficiency  in  the  teaching  of 
mathematics  at  the  present  time  is  the  too 
great  insistence  upon  the  logical  and  abstract, 
to  the  exclusion  of  the  concrete  and  applied. 
Teaching  geometry  largely  through  its  appli- 
cations certainly  appears  at  war  with  the  sim- 
ple and  orderly  teaching  that  is  based  on  the 
strictly  logical  organization  of  that  subject; 
but  experience  may  show  that  there  are  many 
paths  through  applied  geometry  which  reach 
the  real  goal  of  learning  more  effectively 
than  the  traditional  approaches.  Among  the 
sciences,  it  is  apparent  that  in  the  best  teach- 
ing of  nature  study,  modern  method  is  coming 
nearer  to  a  more  natural  order,  as  concerns 
the  learner.  It  is  noteworthy  that  biology  in 
secondary  education,  whether  under  that  name, 
or  as  botany  and  zoology,  has  attempted  many 


THE  NEW  BASIS  OF  METHOD  47 

schemes  based  upon  the  logical  organization 
of  subject-matter  which  appeals  to  the  mature 
scientist,  but  without  success ;  and  that  in  the 
best  secondary  schools  it  is  now  following 
various  experimental  orders  which  are  frankly 
claimed  to  be  psychological  or  pedagogical  in 
their  nature. 

Illustrations  might  be  multiplied.  On  both 
sides  of  the  question  are  camps  of  those  who 
teach  geography,  to  some  extent  teachers  in 
one,  and  geographers  in  the  other.  The  his- 
torians have  given  the  world  new  definitions 
of  history  and  new  tests  of  its  organization, 
and  are  insisting  that  those  who  teach  history 
to  children  shall  accept  their  criteria ;  and  edu- 
cators who  think  they  understand  children  are 
waiting  expectantly  for  the  man  who  is  at  once 
historian  and  also  learned  in,  or  intuitive  of, 
the  ways  of  growing  youth.  In  some  respects 
a  natural  method  in  selecting  and  presenting 
the  materials  of  literature  has  been  found  for 
all  the  grades ;  but  so  far  it  is  not  believed 
that  the  American  secondary  school  shows 
traces  of  this  influence,  though  the  English 


48  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

secondary  school  has  felt  it  to  some  extent. 
In  the  teaching  of  modern  languages  there 
are  methods  called  natural,  hut  whether  they 
are  actually  pedagogical  is  still  a  question  of 
fact. 

The  foregoing  account  presents  in  outline 
two  great  and  in  large  part  opposed  theoretic 
foundations  of  method.  The  first  grows  out 
of  the  exclusive  consideration  of  those  phases 
of  human  experience  which  are  chosen  as  the 
subjects  of  school  education,  and  is  primarily 
characterized  by  the  logical  organization  which 
develops  in  the  mind  of  the  adult  student  and 
the  most  inclusive  thinker ;  this  logical  order 
and  full  content  modified,  reduced,  and  diluted 
only  where  painful  experience  renders  it  abso- 
lutely necessary  to  make  certain  accommoda- 
tions to  the  child's  immaturity  (or  stupidity, 
as  some  are  prone  to  think).  The  second  repre- 
sents an  attempt  to  utilize  to  the  full  the  pos- 
sibilities of  the  learning  processes  which  are  a 
part  of  the  natural  inheritance,  the  teacher 
acting  as  a  guide,  example,  and  purveyor  of 


THE  NEW  BASIS  OF  METHOD  49 

opportunities  for  learning  rather  than  dictator 
of  content  and  method.  In  the  first,  the  thing 
to  be  taught  determines  method;  in  the  second, 
natural  processes  of  learning  claim  chief  at- 
tention. The  ultimate  ends  are  not  greatly 
different;  under  both  theories  there  is  sub- 
stantial agreement  as  to  the  elements  of  the 
social  inheritance  whose  mastery  must  be  made 
the  end  of  school  education.  The  essential 
opposition  lies  in  the  methods  of  attaining 
these  ends. 

The  educational  literature  of  the  day 
abounds  in  criticism  of  each  theory  and  espe- 
cially of  the  observed  results  of  the  application 
of  each  theory.  It  is  believed  by  many  educa- 
tors that  schemes  of  teaching  built  largely 
through  study  of  subject-matter  are  failing  to 
produce  results.  Especially  is  this  believed  to 
be  true  in  the  field  of  secondary  education 
•where  the  influences  of  recent  pedagogical 
thinking  have,  as  yet,  hardly  been  felt.  It  is 
contended  that  formal  education  does  not 
function  in  any  kind  of  genuine  experience, 
or  that  it  functions  abnormally.  Faulty  method 


60  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

produces  mental  sterility,  and  compels  the 
children  to  forsake  the  school  in  order  to  gain 
contact  with  reality,  as  that  answers  to  their 
instinctive  demands.  In  some  quarters  it  is 
believed  that  many  of  the  evils  growing  out 
of  wrong  methods  of  teaching  which  take 
little  account  of  the  natural  capacities  and 
limitations  of  children  are  insidious  in  their 
nature  and,  detected  long  after  the  harm  has 
been  done,  cannot  be  traced  to  their  real  cause. 
Good  ground  can  be  found  for  the  assertion 
that  the  too  logical  organization  of  subject- 
matter  (which  means,  in  effect,  that  it  becomes 
too  much  removed  from  the  processes  of  learn- 
ing on  the  natural  level)  may  be  responsible 
for  a  subtle  arrest  of  development  in  the  men- 
tal and  moral  nature  of  the  child,  comparable, 
in  its  results,  to  premature  and  maladjusted 
physical  labor  on  the  body.  Attempts  at  learn- 
ing carried  along  in  opposition  to  the  natural 
processes  result  finally  in  a  paralysis  of  inter- 
est and  an  incapacity  for  spontaneous  and 
active  effort  in  the  fields  of  human  experience 
involved.  Hence  the  seeming  paradox  that  we 


THE  NEW  BASIS  OF  METHOD  51 

may,  by  extensive  teaching  of  English  litera- 
ture (in  ways  remote  from  natural),  destroy 
all  taste  and  appreciation  for  the  kinds  of 
literature  which  we  teach.  Hence  the  proba- 
bility that  modern  methods  of  teaching  science 
in  secondary  schools  may,  except  in  a  few 
cases,  destroy  the  native  curiosity  and  interest 
which,  if  permitted  or  encouraged  to  grow  in 
more  natural  ways,  might  result  in  permanent 
increase  of  pleasure  and  capacity  in  these 
fields.  Hence  the  observed  fact  that  wrong 
methods  of  teaching  religion  and  morality, 
methods  themselves  the  outgrowth  of  too  ex- 
clusive consideration  of  the  subject  as  it  ap- 
pealed to  mature  leaders  and  thinkers,  have 
operated  so  as  to  stultify  true  development  in 
these  directions.  In  general  the  criticism  is 
repeatedly  advanced  that  the  limitations  of  a 
pedagogy  built  largely  on  considerations  of 
the  logical  order  of  subject-matter  are  not 
found  so  much  in  the  immediately  recognized 
difficulties  of  teaching  as  in  the  permanent 
arrest  of  development  which  ultimately  super- 
venes. From  the  standpoint  of  the  modern 


62  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

educator  there  is  something  quite  pathetic  in 
the  ease  with  which  children  can  be  artificial- 
ized  in  the  educative  process.  They  can  be 
taught  schemes  of  language,  literature,  science, 
history,  and  other  studies  with  apparent  good 
result,  and  can  be  successfully  crammed  for  the 
tests  which  examinations  provide.  It  is  only 
when  we  consider  the  deeper  significance  of  it 
all,  say  the  critics,  in  producing  individual 
and  social  arrest  of  development  and  ultimate 
decay,  that  we  can  realize  that  nature  has  es- 
tablished certain  paths  of  educational  pro- 
cedure which  cannot  be  greatly  ignored  except 
at  our  peril. 

On  the  other  hand,  schemes  of  method 
based  more  nearly  on  the  supposed  natural 
process  are  frequently  open  to  the  criticism 
that  the  interest  they  evoke  is  temporary  rather 
than  permanent,  that  they  fail  to  produce  the 
concrete  results  in  habit  and  knowledge  which 
the  world  demands,  that  they  tend  to  make  of 
the  youth  a  barbarian  or  "natural  savage" 
rather  than  the  refined  and  molded  man  de- 
manded by  modern  society.  Where  the  move- 


THE  NEW  BASIS  OF  METHOD  53 

ment  for  a  less  artificial  education  has  had  its 
effect  on  method,  it  is  claimed  that  there  has 
been  a  decline  in  certain  measurable  kinds  of 
efficiency.  Children  read  and  write  less  well 
than  formerly;  their  arithmetical  knowledge 
is  imperfect  and  unusable ;  their  knowledge  of 
history  and  geography  is  vague  and  mixed  with 
much  error ;  their  execution  in  drawing,  lan- 
guage, and  manual  work  is  slipshod  and  char- 
acterized by  low  ideals  and  lack  of  standards. 
What  does  it  profit  a  child  if  he  have  great 
interest  in  learning  to  spell  if  he  never  learn 
to  spell  ?  As  was  said  before,  primary  teach- 
ing has  unquestionably  justified  the  change 
in  the  basis  of  method ;  but  it  can  hardly  be 
said  that  the  same  is  true  of  the  attempts  to 
reorganize  the  subjects  of  the  upper  grades 
and  the  high  school. 

To  the  criticisms  of  the  second  theory  it 
may  be  answered,  of  course,  that  any  method- 
ology based  on  a  consideration  of  the  natural 
learning  processes  must  be  a  matter  of  slow 
growth  and  that  we  can  hardly  expect  any 
great  achievements  until,  in  the  upper  schools, 


54  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

methods  shall  have  been  experimentally  worked 
out,  as  they  have  already  been  worked  out  in 
the  primary  schools.  But  this  is  small  satis- 
faction in  view  of  the  fact  that  it  is  especially 
in  the  maturer  pupils  that  the  world  demands 
some  tangible  evidence  of  the  results  of  edu- 
cation. 

Where,  then,  can  the  practical  educator  of 
to-day  find  a  sound  basis  of  method,  one  that 
will  combine  a  maximum  of  good  with  a  mini- 
mum of  evil  ?  The  writer  believes  that  a  care- 
ful study  of  the  best  educational  experiments 
of  recent  times  and  of  the  processes  involved 
in  procuring  excellent  results  in  the  physical, 
moral,  and  vocational  education  of  individuals 
and  groups  in  the  past  will  show  that  in  all 
best  method  there  is  involved  a  conscious  or 
unconscious  recognition  of  the  two  large  prin- 
ciples discussed  above,  but  each  in  a  definite 
relation  to  particular  stages  of  the  learning 
process.  In  individuals  or  among  groups  of 
individuals  education  has  become  sterile, 
cramping,  and  repulsive  when  its  votaries  have 


THE  NEW  BASIS  OF  METHOD  55 

too  greatly  intruded  the  adult  point  of  view 
and  the  mechanical  forms  of  adult  thinking 
on  youth ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  when  en- 
thusiastic teachers  and  educational  prophets 
have  been  able  to  supplant  traditional  subjects 
and  methods  with  others  supposed  to  lie  near 
to  the  lines  of  natural  and  unforced  develop- 
ment, there  has  been  a  failure  to  realize  the 
habits,  forms  of  skill,  and  definite  knowledge 
which  social  conditions  demand.  But  when- 
ever and  wherever  it  has  been  possible  to  com- 
bine the  two  principles  it  would  seem  that 
education  has  more  nearly  approximated  a 
maximum  of  efficiency. 

On  the  basis  of  this  accumulated  experience 
it  would  seem,  for  example,  other  things  being 
equal,  that  in  organizing  human  experience 
for  the  purpose  of  teaching  young  children, 
the  pedagogical  rather  than  the  logical  order 
should  receive  consideration,  but  that  with 
increasing  maturity  of  mind  there  might  be  a 
gradual  shifting  of  emphasis  to  the  logical. 
Again,  other  things  being  equal,  and  age  be- 
ing left  out  of  consideration,  it  would  appear 


66     EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

that  the  early  contact  of  the  child  or  youth 
with  a  new  field  of  human  experience  which 
is  to  be  made  his  through  the  learning  process, 
should  be  governed  by  pedagogical  rather 
than  logical  considerations.  Again,  within  any 
study  which  is  long  pursued  for  the  sake  of  a 
considerable  body  of  habit  or  knowledge,  it 
would  seem  desirable  to  vary  the  procedure 
from  natural  to  logical  and  the  reverse  around 
each  fairly  large  unit  which  might  develop 
within  that  subject-matter.  The  reasons  for 
this  shifting  from  one  organizing  principle  of 
method  to  another  lie  in  the  fact  that  under- 
lying all  formal,  logical,  and  highly  systema- 
tized learning  is  a  substratum  of  kindled  feel- 
ing and  interest,  crude  first-hand  knowledge, 
and  aspiration  and  ideal  such  as  spring  from 
large  self-activity.  These  rough,  undifferenti- 
ated,  and  pervasive  qualities  are  best  developed 
by  those  forms  of  learning  which  approximate 
the  spontaneous.  They  seem  to  be  basal  to 
permanent  interests  and  to  the  fullest  develop- 
ment of  organized  and  systematized  habit  and 
knowledge  to  be  acquired  later.  The  idea  might 


THE  NEW  BASIS  OP  METHOD  67 

be  expressed  in  another  way  by  saying  that 
the  true  educative  process  consists  in  first  pro- 
viding abundant  opportunities  for  that  devel- 
opment, in  connection  with  any  study  or  prac- 
tice, which  comes  from  the  largely  spontaneous 
exercise  of  the  instincts  and  other  natural 
capacities ;  and  then  in  proceeding  to  build 
on  this  foundation  the  habit,  skill,  knowledge, 
and  ideal  which  are  demanded  of  civilized  con- 
ditions, and  which  require  what  we  term  arti- 
ficial organization  on  the  one  hand  to  corre- 
spond to  artificial  requirements,  or  logical  on 
the  other  as  best  exhibiting  the  grasp  which 
experience  and  insight  have  attained  in  the 
world  of  knowledge. 

A  few  examples  will  make  this  clear.  The 
child  in  a  stimulating  environment  of  imple- 
ments and  suggestion  naturally  seeks  to  ex- 
press himself  through  drawing.  His  early 
drawing  is  crude,  imperfect,  and  shows  lack 
of  knowledge  of  elemental  principles.  But  in 
freely  expressing  himself  the  child  gains  a 
body  of  experience  and  some  skill  which  may 
be  fundamental  to  later  development  in  this 


68     EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

direction.  Play,  of  course,  provides  an  analo- 
gous situation  in  the  fields  of  physical,  social, 
and  vocational  development.  Or  take  the  case 
of  a  boy  provided  with  the  means  and  sugges- 
tion for  work  in  physical  science.  Left  to  him- 
self such  a  boy  reads,  experiments,  procures 
crude  results,  all  of  which  may  not  apparently 
advance  him  far  in  the  systematic  study  of 
physical  principles  or  in  the  acquisition  of 
skill  of  manipulation.  Yet  there  is  good  reason 
for  suspecting  that  the  boy  who  does  not  have 
opportunity  for  this  stage  of  development 
(which  is  not  now  allowed  by  the  schools) 
comes  to  the  systematic  study  of  physics  with 
an  insufficient  background  of  experience  and 
interest,  and  these  cannot  be  developed  by 
the  logically  arranged  courses  of  experiments 
and  study  of  principles  found  in  the  schools. 
It  may  well  be  questioned,  in  view  of  the  re- 
sults in  our  schools,  whether  the  systematic 
study  of  literature  in  upper  grades  should  not 
be  preceded  by  an  extensive  provision  of  op- 
portunities for  reading,  largely  along  the  line 
of  the  natural  tendencies,  exercised,  of  course, 


THE  NEW  BASIS  OF  METHOD  59 

in  an  environment  of  -wholesome  material 
and  suggestion.  Similarly  in  the  field  of  his- 
tory. To  the  child,  as  to  primitive  man,  his- 
tory is  more  than  a  cold  account  of  facts ;  it 
is  something  which  involves  feeling,  imagina- 
tion, ideal.  Left  to  himself  the  child  may  tend 
to  gather  his  experience  of  the  past  and  re- 
mote from  song,  picture,  tale,  myth,  novel,  and 
epic  as  well  as  from  the  books  which  offer 
more  exact  statements  of  fact.  Whether  we 
study  the  lives  of  peoples  or  the  biographies 
of  individuals,  we  have  yet  no  evidence  that 
the  approach  to  history  through  the  above  chan- 
nels is  not  the  most  natural  and,  in  the  long  run, 
most  effective.  The  danger,  of  course,  lies  in 
the  fact  that  so  many  individuals  are  allowed 
to  stop  before  they  have  acquired  some  of  the 
methods  and  content  of  exact  historical  study. 
But  no  less  great  at  the  present  time  is  the 
danger  that  young  children  will  be  fed  on 
historian's  history,  which  is  good  for  the  his- 
torian, but  may  be  husks  for  children.  Illus- 
trations might  be  multiplied  from  other  sub- 
jects of  ordinary  curricula. 


60     EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

Can  we,  then,  say  that  we  have  already  with 
us  to  some  extent  a  new  basis  of  method? 
Can  we  not  in  connection  with  any  study  or 
pursuit  of  the  schools  recognize  that  what 
might  be  called  the  processes  and  methods  of 
spontaneous  learning  require  recognition  up 
to  a  certain  point,  after  which  a  transition 
should  be  made  to  the  methods  begotten  of 
mature  human  wisdom  acting  on  past  experi- 
ence? It  seems  to  the  writer  that  we  have  al- 
ready a  partial  recognition  of  these  large  facts, 
but  that  in  connection  with  certain  schools 
and  types  of  education  we  refuse  to  allow 
ourselves  to  escape  the  habits  and  preposses- 
sions of  tradition,  or  that  the  school  teacher 
allows  himself  to  be  enslaved  by  methods  de- 
veloped in  schools  where  mature  people  study. 
A  great  difficulty  lies  in  the  general  unwill- 
ingness to  make  education  an  experimental 
field  of  applied  science  and  art.  When,  in  any 
given  subject  of  study,  we  have  a  carefully 
worked  out  logical  organization,  it  involves 
a  courageous  and  adventurous  disposition 
to  depart  from  it  and  to  seek  in  the  wilds 


THE  NEW  BASIS  OF  METHOD  61 

that  organization  which  will  carry  more  of  an 
appeal  to,  and  be  more  effective  with,  the 
beginning  student.  In  the  absence  of  any 
complete  or  helpful  knowledge  of  genetic  psy- 
chology, every  teacher  who  would  utilize  the 
natural  processes  of  learning  as  foundations 
for  later  systematization  of  knowledge  and 
habit  [is  obliged  to  experiment,  and  some- 
times almost  blindly.  Here  the  methods  of 
trial  and  error  and  selection  are  yet  largely 
necessary. 

It  is,  however,  essential  that  the  educa- 
tor get  some  conception  of  the  principles  in- 
volved. Doubtless  we  can  say  of  much  Ameri- 
can primary  education  that  it  recognizes  the 
principles,  so  far  as  small  children  are  con- 
cerned. Yet  it  is  of  importance  that  we  recog- 
nize that,  after  all,  it  may  not  be  a  question 
of  age  that  is  involved  so  much  as  the  rela- 
tion of  the  content  and  development  of  the 
mind  to  a  study  or  practice  (or,  more  signifi- 
cant, the  large  units  within  these)  which  is 
about  to  be  taken  up.  It  may  be  that  even 
the  fairly  mature  mind,  approaching  a  unit  of 


62  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

knowledge  or  practice  with  which  it  has  thus 
far  no  connections,  should  make  its  first 
approaches  largely  along  the  planes  closely 
related  to  natural  learning.  It  may  be  that 
the  chief  weakness  of  our  secondary  educa- 
tion is  that  it  fails  to  make  allowance  for 
a  modicum  of  natural  learning  before  the 
highly  systematic  organizations  of  material 
are  taken  up.  It  may  be  that  the  constant 
complaint  in  high  school  and  college  of  the 
immaturity  and  unpreparedness  of  the  stu- 
dent has  its  real  source,  not  in  the  lack  of 
technical  skill  and  specific  knowledge,  but 
in  the  unpreparedness  of  attitude  and  inter- 
est and  basal  experience  which  in  so  many 
cases  are  not  the  fruits  of  our  present  me- 
thods. 

No  basis  of  method  can  be  successful  in  a 
permanent  way  which  does  not  recognize,  on 
the  one  hand,  the  fundamental  and  pervasive 
character  of  the  learning  processes  which  na- 
ture developed  long  before  the  advent  of 
modern  culture ;  nor,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  imperative  demands  of  modern  social 


THE  NEW  BASIS  OF  METHOD  63 

and  cultural  life  in  regulating,  organizing, 
and  rendering  efficient  these  same  learning 
processes  along  specific  lines.  It  should  be 
apparent  that  the  logical  organization  of  sub- 
ject-matter represents  something  very  use- 
ful as  a  basis  of  method,  if  not  introduced 
too  prematurely  in  the  mental  and  moral 
evolution  of  the  child.  What  is  needed  is 
care  in  providing  the  child,  as  a  prelimin- 
ary to  learning  on  the  artificial  level,  with  an 
abundance  of  experience  on  the  natural  plane. 
Sometimes  the  home  does  this,  and  it  is  easy  to 
see  that  the  more  immediate  industrial  life  of 
the  farm  and  the  shop  in  past  centuries  was  a 
rich  source  of  this  basal  experience.  But  if  the 
home  does  not  provide  it,  whether  in  cultural, 
social,  or  vocational  directions,  then  the  school 
must  do  so,  in  the  interests  of  effective  edu- 
cation. The  new  basis  of  method  involves,  on 
the  one  hand,  a  guarantee  of  this  fundamental 
experience  as  a  basis  of  motive,  interest,  and 
first-hand  knowledge ;  but  it  also  involves  the 
necessity  of  building  on  this  foundation  a 
structure  of  organized  habit,  systematized 


64  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

knowledge,  and  efficient  ideal,  -which  subse- 
quent course  of  learning  may  very  fully  in- 
volve the  logical  and  artificial  organization  of 
subject-matter. 


Ill 

WHAT  IS  LIBERAL  EDUCATION? 

Is  liberal  education  losing  in  power  to  at- 
tract youth?  This  is  alleged  in  many  quarters. 
In  college  and  secondary  school,  the  studies 
which  wear  a  vocational  aspect  are  being  pre- 
ferred, we  are  told,  to  those  that  minister  to 
the  larger  ideals  of  life.  Education  toward 
practical  achievement  is  being  sought  by  an 
increasing  number  of  students,  while  the  num- 
bers of  those  seeking  in  the  humanities  the 
elevating  influences  which  a  higher  civiliza- 
tion needs  do  not  increase  proportionately. 
The  advocates  of  an  effective  vocational  edu- 
cation are  not  infrequently  embarrassed  by 
the  charge  that  they  are  promoting  the  decay 
of  much  that  makes  for  kindled  ideal,  sympa- 
thetic insight  and  personal  culture.  They 
have  not  always  the  hardihood  to  suggest  that 
perhaps  the  waning  of  interest  in  liberal  edu- 
cation may  be  occasioned  largely  by  lack  of 
adaptation  in  its  own  instruments  and  methods. 


66  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

May  it  not  be  possible  that  tbe  demand  for 
the  essentials  of  liberal  education  is  no  less 
strong  than  formerly,  but  that  ancient  ways 
of  meeting  it  no  longer  suffice  ? 

Clearly,  better  foundations  are  needed  for 
liberal  education  in  school  and  college.  Pro- 
fessors and  teachers  of  the  liberal  arts  still 
reflect  in  a  measure  the  ideals  and  methods  of 
the  cloister  and  of  the  leisured  world  in  which 
their  calling  found  its  aristocratic  and  exclu- 
sive origins.  Quite  naturally,  they  are  usually 
strong  in  their  faiths,  and  resentful  of  scrutiny 
into  the  social  validity  of  their  purposes ;  and 
it  would  be  surprising  if,  under  the  circum- 
stances, they  proved  themselves  able  to  evalu- 
ate in  any  fundamental  way  the  effectiveness 
of  their  means  and  methods  in  promoting  cul- 
ture and  social  worth  under  modern  demo- 
cratic conditions. 

Schoolmen  —  teachers  of  the  liberal  arts  in 
school  and  college — can  be  credited  with  a 
fine  devotion  to  the  study  of  those  fields  of 
knowledge  in  which  their  scholarly  interests 
lie;  but,  with  rare  exceptions,  they  have  not 


WHAT  IS  LIBERAL  EDUCATION?         67 

been  students  of  teaching.  They  have  mas- 
tered subject-matter,  the  means  of  education, 
—  but  not  pedagogy,  the  art  of  effectively  ap- 
plying the  means.  They  have  not  yet  evolved 
a  satisfactory  philosophy  of  liberal  education 
to  supersede  the  store  of  educational  dogmas, 
psychological  misconceptions,  and  cultural 
mysticisms  which  they  inherited. 

Yet  our  schools  and  colleges  are  thronged 
as  never  before  by  those  seeking  or  sent  to 
seek  higher  education.  Over  a  million  boys 
and  girls,  under  no  legal  compulsion,  now 
pursue  the  traditional  types  of  liberal  learning 
in  public  secondary  schools  in  America ;  and 
the  men  and  women  in  the  colleges  are  to  be 
numbered  by  hundreds  of  thousands.  But 
much  of  the  work  done  in  these  institutions 
is  without  clear  purpose,  and  is  therefore 
largely  futile  as  regards  the  finer  ends  of 
liberal  education. 

Efficiency  in  education,  as  elsewhere  in  the 
regions  of  conscious  effort,  involves  on  the 
one  hand  a  fairly  clear  conception  of  goals  to 
be  reached,  and  on  the  other  a  degree  of  cer- 


68  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

titude  as  to  the  probable  functioning  of  the 
means  and  methods  employed.  Our  institutions 
devoted  to  liberal  education  are  not  able  to  ap- 
ply to  themselves  tests  of  efficiency  along  these 
lines ;  they  have  no  acceptable  formulations  of 
their  purposes ;  and  equally  (and  partly  as  a 
consequence)  they  have  no  sufficient  evidence 
as  to  the  efficacy  of  the  procedures  which  they 
use.  These  schools  receive  the  picked  person- 
alities of  the  community,  from  the  standpoint 
both  of  natural  inheritance  and  of  social  sur- 
roundings. Intelligent  men  and  women  nat- 
urally expect  the  schools  to  enhance  in  marked 
degree  the  civic  and  cultural  possibilities  of 
these  young  people.  Neither  parents  nor  pub- 
lic are  satisfied  with  the  results.  In  spite  of 
the  large  attendance  in  school  and  college, 
faculties  allege  that  there  is  a  waning  of  in- 
terest in  intellectual  pursuits.  Students  are 
perfunctory  in  their  devotion  to  serious  studies, 
except  to  those  appealing  to  practical  motives. 
Vocational  education  seems  often  to  have  the 
stronger  claims  on  attention  and  interest.  Be- 
cause of  the  greater  efficiency  of  its  procedures 


WHAT  IS  LIBERAL  EDUCATION?          69 

it  may,  indeed,  tend  to  attract  students  at  an 
age  when,  for  them,  a  further  liberal  education, 
if  effective,  would  be  preferable. 

Vocational  education  is  capable,  at  best,  of 
making  only  partial  and  somewhat  incidental 
contributions  to  liberal  education,  no  matter 
how  we  conceive  the  latter.  A  democracy 
surely  needs  liberal  education,  widely  de- 
veloped, as  something  distinct  from  voca- 
tional capacity.  The  lawyer  can  be  given, 
somehow,  interests  in  music  and  art  quite  un- 
connected with  his  vocation ;  the  farmer  may 
have  his  tastes  for  literature,  sociology,  or  as- 
tronomy; and  the  machinist  may  touch  with 
some  appreciation,  in  his  leisure  hours,  such 
remote  fields  as  the  plant-world,  or  the  interior 
decoration  of  a  home. 

May  we  not,  in  fact,  still  find  it  desirable 
to  defend,  in  a  degree,  liberal  education  in 
terms  of  its  differences  from  vocational  edu- 
cation; not  indeed  in  disparagement  of  the 
latter,  as  the  cloistered  schoolman  has  done, 
but  as  furnishing  the  vital  complementary 
factors  to  it?  Man,  to  be  of  use  to  himself, 


70  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

and  to  society,  must  be  a  producer  of  utilities 
of  some  sort ;  and  it  is  folly  to  disparage  this 
function,  or  to  deny  its  importance  in  any 
sane  scheme  of  education.  But  man  is  also  a 
consumer ;  he  is  a  user  of  the  endlessly  varied 
output  of  the  labor  and  inspiration  of  others. 
To  produce  little  and  consume  much  is  a  char- 
acteristic of  parasitical  forms  of  life ;  but  to 
produce  well  and  consume  badly  gives  us,  in  the 
human  sphere,  narrow,  illiberal,  self -limiting, 
and  ultimately  self-destroying  individualities. 
The  modern  world  insists  on  specialization  in 
productive  activities  as  the  keynote  to  effi- 
ciency ;  but  it  must  learn  to  insist  equally  on 
the  democratization  and  universalizing  of  fine 
consuming  capacities  as  a  condition  of  main- 
taining the  larger  forms  of  social  life.  One  of 
the  vices  almost  always  inherent  in  certain 
forms  of  social  aristocracy,  is  the  artificial 
specialization  of  some  consuming  functions. 

Are  there  not  revealed  in  the  distinctions 
here  presented  the  clues  to  the  methods  and 
functions  of  liberal  education  ?  Man  stands  in 
a  twofold  relationship  to  the  world ;  he  is  a 


WHAT  IS  LIBERAL  EDUCATION?          71 

producer  of  utilities,  and  also  a  consumer.  As 
producer,  he  writes  books,  or  constructs  ma- 
chines, or  produces  wheat,  or  builds  houses, 
or  heals  the  sick,  or  conveys  travelers ;  and  for 
any  of  these  activities  he  can  be  trained.  As 
consumer,  however,  he  is  inspired  by  books, 
served  by  machines,  nourished  by  bread,  shel- 
tered by  houses,  healed  by  physicians,  and 
carried  by  railways ;  and  for  the  wise  and  pro- 
fitable exercise  of  these  activities  he  can  also 
be  trained.  He  specializes  in  production;  but 
manufacture,  and  printing,  and  steam  enable 
him  to  universalize  in  consumption.  What  we 
call  the  social  inheritance  —  knowledge,  ideals, 
institutions,  inventions,  all  capitalized  in  more 
or  less  permanent  forms  —  is  at  the  disposal 
of  any  qualified  user.  In  a  world  of  specialized 
producers,  each  person  sufficiently  trained  in 
utilization  has  for  his  enjoyment  and  service 
endless  stores  of  science,  of  art,  of  religious 
ideals,  of  political  capacity,  and  of  economic 
resources. 

The  world  needs  able  producers,  and  edu- 
cation to  that  end  will  never  be  amiss ;  but  it 


72     EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

also  needs,  as  a  condition  of  social  well-being, 
consumers  who  can  utilize  material  and  spirit- 
ual products  to  their  own  advantage,  and  also 
to  the  advantage  of  those  who  are  of  high 
grade  among  producers.  Do  I  buy  inferior 
newspapers,  when  better  are  available  ?  I  not 
only  injure  myself,  but  I  lend  my  influence  to 
lowering  the  standards  of  newspaper  produc- 
tion. Does  one  prefer  cheap  and  ephemeral 
fiction  to  the  standard  writings  of  the  great 
masters?  Not  only  does  he  fail  to  realize  his 
own  best  good,  but  he  becomes  measurably  re- 
sponsible for  the  failure  of  other  potential  great 
masters  to  reach  the  stage  of  high  creative  work. 
Do  we,  as  a  people,  reward  with  our  approval 
and  patronage  unscientific  medical  attendance, 
conscienceless  political  service,  and  life-impair- 
ing industrial  activity  ?  We  pay,  as  a  rule,  our 
own  penalty;  but  society  is  also  permanently 
the  loser  in  scientific  medicine,  in  political  hon- 
esty, and  in  genuinely  efficient  industry. 

Is  not  the  essence  of  liberal  education  to 
be  found  in  the  conception  of  man  as  a  user? 


WHAT  IS  LIBERAL  EDUCATION?          73 

Is  it  possible  to  call  a  man  liberally  educated, 
who,  as  a  user,  habitually  makes  inferior 
choices  from  the  fields  of  art,  literature,  re- 
ligion, applied  science,  convivial  association, 
political  leadership,  and  travel?  Fortunately, 
we  no  longer  hold  the  older  notion  that  cul- 
ture is  inseparable  from  certain  specialized 
forms  of  appreciation,  such  as  ability  to  read 
Greek,  speak  French,  recite  sonnets,  or  discuss 
the  latest  fiction ;  and  we  are  slowly  learning 
to  conceive  it  as  something  deeper  than  the 
mere  possession  of  etiquette  and  a  set  of  con- 
ventions. 

The  liberally  educated  man  of  the  twenti- 
eth century  will  not  be  the  member  of  a  nar- 
row cult.  From  many  quarters  will  it  prove 
possible,  as  a  famous  university  president  has 
told  us,  to  derive  the  training  and  experience 
which  make  for  liberal  education ;  and  it  is 
futile  to  expect  that  all  liberally  educated  men 
shall  exhibit  powers  of  appreciation  in  the 
same  fields.  Life  is  short,  and  the  world  of 
ideals,  knowledge,  and  specialized  service 
grows  constantly  larger.  If  all  men  read,  we 


74  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

are  under  obligation  to  seek  to  produce  better 
standards  of  reading ;  but  this  does  not  mean 
that  we  shall  bar  from,  the  ranks  of  the  liber- 
ally educated,  on  this  account  alone,  the  man 
who  has  no  Latin;  nor  he  who,  perchance, 
may  not  have  read  Browning;  nor  even  one 
who  frankly  confesses  a  general  distaste  for 
classical  literature. 

Perhaps,  in  the  more  democratic  society  of 
the  future,  we  shall  find  more  satisfactory 
universal  tests  of  liberal  education  in  those 
regions  of  activity  where  large  numbers  have 
social  contact.  To-day  we  all  buy  and  use 
pictures  —  in  newspaper,  magazine,  moving- 
picture  show,  billboard  exhibition,  and,  less 
commonly,  in  art  gallery  and  in  the  house- 
hold ;  how  much  of  liberal  education  for  this 
purpose  can  a  more  purposive  system  of  school 
training  give  us  ?  We  are  all  users  of  the  out- 
put of  the  modern  loom;  according  to  the 
character  of  the  demand,  this  output  may  be 
prevailingly  flimsy,  inartistic,  unhygienic,  and 
the  product  of  shop  conditions  which  promote 
poverty,  ill  health,  and  low  morals.  Will  not 


WHAT  IS  LIBERAL  EDUCATION?          75 

right  ideas  of  liberal  education  insist  on  ele- 
vating these  conditions,  and  socializing  this 
form  of  consumption?  Again,  that  field  of  so- 
cial activity  which  we  term  politics  has  evolved 
a  form  of  specialized  service  for  which  com- 
pensation is  given  as  in  other  fields.  Voting 
means  simply  collective  employment  of  this 
specialized  service  toward  the  performance  of 
particular  functions.  In  a  democracy,  it  has 
seemed  desirable  to  allow  large  numbers  to 
share,  directly  or  indirectly,  in  the  employ- 
ment of  public  servants.  The  essence  of  gen- 
eral civic  education  is  to  produce  good  em- 
ployers of  civic  workers,  that  is,  persons  who 
will  have  a  fairly  clear  conception  of  the  task 
to  be  done,  and  who  will  know  how  to  choose 
efficient  and  honest  employees.  From  this 
standpoint,  shall  we  continue  to  be  able  to 
call  a  man  liberally  educated  for  the  condi- 
tions of  modern  life  who  manifests  incapacity 
and  professes  indifference  in  exercising  his 
social  responsibility  in  the  joint  purchase  of 
expert  political  service? 


76  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

Now,  if  the  conception  of  liberal  education 
here  put  forth  is  valid,  it  is  necessary  that  we 
realize  how  far  the  methods  of  modern  aca- 
demic training  are  alien  to  it.  Not  so  much, 
perhaps,  is  this  true  in  professed  purpose  as 
in  methods  and  results.  A  careful  examina- 
tion of  the  pedagogic  practice  (largely  tradi- 
tional and  customary,  of  course,  rather  than 
consciously  purposive)  of  secondary  school 
and  college  of  liberal  arts  will  show  the  per- 
sistence of  methods  derived  rather  from  an 
ancient  vocational  education,  and  ill  serving 
the  purposes  of  liberal  learning. 

At  bottom,  it  would  seem  that  popular  ob- 
jection to  so-called  liberal  education  rests 
largely  on  a  widespread,  though  seldom  ar- 
ticulate, conviction  that  it  is  not  liberalizing. 
Does  the  study  of  the  historic  "  humanities," 
as  carried  on  in  a  modern  atmosphere,  produce 
the  "humane"  man,  —  the  man  who,  as  in 
the  olden  view,  saw  profoundly,  thought 
deeply,  sympathized  widely,  and  became  a 
blessed  source  of  high  ideals,  correct  think- 
ing, and  benign  sentiment?  Are  our  high 


WHAT  IS  LIBERAL  EDUCATION?          77 

school  graduates  liberally  educated  to  utilize 
and  thereby  to  improve  service  in  the  making 
of  books,  the  preaching  of  sermons,  the  nur- 
ture of  children,  the  policing  of  cities,  the 
administration  of  charity,  and  the  presenta- 
tion of  plays?  Is  the  organized  training  of 
the  average  college  of  liberal  arts  (not  the 
college  life,  since  often,  by  chance  or  design, 
this  is  unquestionably  liberalizing)  such  as  to 
produce  high-grade  appreciation  and  effective 
powers  of  utilization  in  the  fields  of  citizen- 
ship, art,  social  intercourse,  religion? 

It  seems  highly  probable  that,  because  of 
the  prevailing  haziness  of  thinking  regarding 
the  valid  and  practicable  ends  of  liberal  educa- 
tion, there  is  ineffective  organization  of  means. 
What,  for  example,  has  the  obligatory  study 
of  algebra  or  geometry  on  the  part  of  ninety- 
five  per  cent  of  the  more  than  half-million 
high  school  girls  in  America  to  do  with  their 
liberal  education?  Some  seventy  per  cent, 
probably,  of  all  boys  and  girls  in  our  public 
high  schools  are  constantly  studying  Latin, 
that  ancient  and  extolled  instrument  of  lib- 


78  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

eral  education;  but,  as  commonly  studied,  by 
grammatical  methods,  and  without  persistent 
interest,  what  part  does  it  play,  except  in  rare 
instances,  in  the  liberal  education  of  American 
youth?  These  subjects,  it  will  be  said,  are 
prescribed  merely  as  the  preliminary  instru- 
ments of  a  later  liberal  education;  but  what 
is  this?  Are  the  instruments  ever  actually 
used,  and  with  what  effect?  Does  such  edu- 
cation, in  truth,  "function"?  where,  and  to 
what  extent  ? 

Again,  the  large  purposes  of  science-teach- 
ing, enunciated  at  intervals  since  the  days  of 
Spencer  and  Huxley,  are  acceptable  and  ad- 
mirable from  the  standpoint  of  liberal  educa- 
tion; but  in  spite  of  laboratories  and  innu- 
merable courses  in  college  and  secondary 
school,  do  not  these  purposes  still  remain 
largely  unrealized?  What,  after  all,  for  the 
average  youth,  has  the  prevailing  study  of 
physics,  of  chemistry,  and  of  biology  to  do 
with  liberal  education?  The  methods  cur- 
rently employed  are  those  of  formal  voca- 
tional education;  high  school  and  college 


WHAT  IS  LIBERAL  EDUCATION?          79 

teachers  organize  their  work  as  if  their  sole 
business  were  to  prepare  forthcoming  special- 
ists in  teaching,  medicine,  and  engineering. 
Once  in  a  generation  each  institution  may  get 
a  real  teacher  of  science  from  the  standpoint 
of  inspiration,  insight,  culture  —  in  a  word, 
liberal  education;  but  the  rank  and  file  are 
technicians  only.  The  popular  verdict  is  that 
science,  pure  or  applied,  is  not  yet  in  practice 
a  feature  of  liberal  education. 

The  same  criticism  applies  to  other  subjects. 
Our  secondary  schools  and  colleges  multiply 
courses  in  history.  We  all  feel,  vaguely,  that 
in  history,  if  anywhere,  should  be  found  valu- 
able means  of  liberal  education.  But  scientific 
methods,  an  insufficient  pedagogy,  and  a  pre- 
vailing lack  of  social  insight  (perhaps  better 
called  sociological  insight)  have  contributed 
to  the  sterilization  of  this  subject  as  a  soil  for 
the  growth  of  ideals,  sentiments,  and  useful 
social  knowledge. 

Obviously,  we  need  a  revision  of  the  phil- 
osophy and  methods  of  liberal  education. 
Surely,  no  one  can  contend  that  in  a  world 


80  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

growing  daily  richer  in  all  kinds  of  resources, 
—  spiritual,  intellectual,  esthetic,  material, — 
and  in  specialized  service,  we  do  not  need 
education  towards  wise  utilization  on  a  high 
social  plane.  The  democratic  and  universal 
character  of  this  education  must  be  assured. 
Let  it  not  be  forgotten  that  extra-school  agen- 
cies, and  these  often  of  an  irresponsible  sort, 
are  always  active  in  leading  the  consumer 
towards  anything  but  the  finer  forms  of  utiliza- 
tion. The  Sunday  newspaper  and  the  cheap 
magazine  become  the  literature  of  the  major- 
ity; the  billboard,  vaudeville,  and  moving- 
picture  show  give  to  the  people  not  only 
romance,  but  art  as  well ;  the  convivial  asso- 
ciation of  the  drinking-place  is  substituted  for 
more  refined  and  restrained  intercourse;  and 
advertising,  which  now  costs  annually  far 
more  than  the  total  outlay  for  all  forms  of  or- 
ganized education,  incessantly  fashions  tastes 
and  standards  in  the  use  of  clothing,  orna- 
ment, food,  and  habitation,  as  well  as  in  litera- 
ture, music,  and  political  service. 

Many  of  the  foregoing  agencies  are  good ; 


WHAT  IS  LIBERAL  EDUCATION?  81 

but  they  are  seldom  capable  of  producing 
from  within  themselves  the  higher  standards, 
and  they  often  fail  to  lend  themselves  to  the 
wider  social  purposes  needed  by  the  age  in 
which  we  live.  The  school  is  the  one  institu- 
tion under  more  or  less  of  public  control, 
which  is  charged,  in  so  far  as  it  deliberately 
ministers  to  liberal  education,  with  responsi- 
bility for  the  elevation  and  diffusion  of  higher 
standards  of  appreciation  and  utilization.  A 
purposive  program  to  this  end  is  a  present 
educational  need.  When  it  shall  be  evolved, 
it  seems  probable  that,  in  comparison  with  it, 
our  pitiful  drills  in  algebra,  Latin,  textbook 
physics,  ancient  history,  elementary  logic,  and 
English  composition,  will  make  a  poor  exhi- 
bition as  supposed  means  of  genuine  liberal 
education. 

How  can  such  a  program  be  formulated? 
It  seems  to  the  writer  that  the  first  condition 
is  a  statement  of  the  aims  of  liberal  education 
in  terms  of  demonstrable  utilities,  —  a  state- 
ment which  shall  consist  neither  of  mere  de- 


82  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

scriptions  of  means  and  subjects  of  study,  nor 
of  vague  and  perhaps  mystical  generalizations. 
"Culture,"  "mental  training,"  "esthetic  ap- 
preciation," "  the  scientific  spirit,"  are  all  too 
uncertain,  too  complex,  and  perhaps,  in  their 
general  aspects,  too  impracticable  of  realiza- 
tion, to  serve  usefully  as  formulated  goals  of 
educational  effort;  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
subjects  of  study,  the  so-called  liberal  arts,  as 
condensed,  formalized,  and  desiccated  by  the 
schoolmaster,  in  textbook  and  manual,  are 
rarely,  in  themselves,  utilities,  but  merely  in- 
struments or  means.  It  may  be  desirable  that 
a  high  school  girl  should  be  induced  or  com- 
pelled to  study  algebra,  but  surely  this  should 
not  be  for  the  sake  of  the  algebra  itself;  and 
it  is  educational  faith  and  dogma,  not  certitude 
and  science,  which  now  declare  that  out  of 
such  study  she  will  emerge  keener  of  mind, 
stronger  in  self-control,  or  elevated  in  useful 
ideals.  As  found  in  practice  to-day,  liberal 
education  directs  its  efforts  towards  mastery 
of  certain  subjects;  these  are  certainly  only 
means  to  further  ends,  which  are  either  not 


WHAT  IS  LIBERAL  EDUCATION?  83 

yet  defined  or  rest  largely  on  a  basis  of  tradi- 
tion and  mysticism. 

But  modern  education  should  prove  equal 
to  the  task  of  discovering  and  formulating,  as 
educational  ends,  a  large  variety  of  interests, 
forms  of  appreciation,  and  powers  of  utiliza- 
tion, all  having  worth  to  the  individual  and 
to  society.  Having  found  valid  and  attainable 
aims,  it  could  then  develop  ways  and  means 
of  realizing  them. 

A  few  examples  may  indicate  what  is  here 
meant.  In  the  study  of  music,  proficiency  in 
execution  can  be  attained  by  but  few;  but 
fine  appreciation  should  be  possible  to  many. 
Might  not  a  program  of  music-teaching  in 
secondary  schools  be  devised  with  the  latter 
end  only  in  view  ?  It  is  doubtful  if  we  yet 
have  any  tested  methods  for  this  purpose ;  but 
these  would  follow  a  definition  of  such  pur- 
pose. Again,  suppose  it  were  made  a  con- 
trolling end  of  certain  civic  education  in  the 
high  school  to  produce  a  fairly  definite  at- 
titude toward,  and  comprehension  of,  the 
problems  of  the  joint  employment  of  public 


84     EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

servants:  namely,  voting.  What  kind  of  a 
pedagogic  program  could  be  devised  to  that 
end  ?  To  take  another  example,  what  could  a 
college  do  if  it  sought  to  evoke  by  educational 
means,  not  the  scientific  attitude  in  general, 
which  is  at  best  a  questionable  possibility,  but 
a  constructively  scientific  attitude  toward  the 
modern  reporting  and  publication  of  alleged 
news?  Or  if  a  high  school  were  to  seek  to 
elevate  the  consuming  capacities  of  its  students 
in  the  field  of  the  drama,  would  its  faculty  pro- 
vide for  an  analytical  study  of  Shakespearean 
plays,  or  would  it  strive  to  evoke  fairly  good 
results  through  amateur  playwrights  and  actors 
from  within  the  student  body  itself?  Again, 
how  shall  we  give  to  the  youth  who  is  to  be  a 
future  householder,  taste  in  the  choice  of  ma- 
terial surroundings  —  by  the  study  of  formal 
drawing  and  physics,  or  by  the  exercise  of  the 
constructive  interests  of  the  amateur  furniture- 
maker  and  interior  decorator  —  the  work  of 
the  manual-training  shops  ? 

The  second  condition  governing  the  formu- 
lation of  a  more  vital  program  of  liberal  edu- 


WHAT  IS  LIBERAL  EDUCATION?          85 

cation,  as  defined  above,  would  seem  to  re- 
quire a  lessening  of  the  aloofness  of  such 
education,  as  now  carried  on.  An  ancient  type 
of  spiritual-mindedness  was  clearly  character- 
ized by  its  contempt  for  worldly  things,  its 
insistence  on  the  all-importance  of  things  be- 
yond this  earth ;  our  so-called  liberal  education 
preserves  even  yet  some  cloistral  aspects,  in 
its  distrust  of  worldly  things,  its  shrinking 
from  too  close  contact  with  actualities  of  the 
present.  Perhaps  this  attitude  was  desirable 
when  culture  of  any  considerable  degree  was 
necessarily  the  product,  as  well  as  the  posses- 
sion, of  an  exclusive  and  leisure  class;  and, 
just  as  the  modern  world  is  richer,  in  all  prob- 
ability, for  the  monastic  detachment  of  the 
churches  which  permitted  the  ripening  of  cer- 
tain social  tendencies,  so,  possibly,  an  exclu- 
sive ancient  culture  has  fertilized  modern  life. 
But  what  is  here  called  liberal  education  not 
only  ought  to  be  democratic  and  popular :  it 
is,  in  forms  good  or  bad,  actually  that  to-day. 
The  school  may  ignore  its  responsibilities; 
other  less  disinterested  agencies  will  continue 


86  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

actively  at  work.  All  people  in  modern  society 
are  being  subjected  to  never-ceasing  influences 
which  debase  or  improve  their  consuming 
capacities. 

A  system  of  liberal  education  which  main- 
tains old  traditions  of  intellectual  or  social 
aloofness  cannot  serve  well  under  modern  con- 
ditions. Our  academic  studies  are,  on  this 
ground,  open  to  criticism.  Many  of  them  are 
organized  and  presented  too  much  with  refer- 
ence to  their  "  pure  "  aspects  —  that  is,  with- 
out regard  to  their  applications  in  contempo- 
rary life  and  activity.  As  a  consequence,  they 
fail  to  "  function  "  in  life,  social  and  individual, 
as  it  is  now  lived ;  that  is,  the  results  in  terms 
of  ideals  and  knowledge  in  action,  namely,  in 
"  works,"  are  not  realized. 

Can  we  not  devise  a  system  of  liberal  educa- 
tion which  will  find  its  foundations  in  the  best 
things  of  the  here  and  now?  Literature  and  art 
are  all  about  us;  science  and  faith  offer  their 
daily  contributions;  history  is  in  the  making 
to-day;  industry  pours  forth  its  wares;  and 
children,  no  less  than  adults,  are  sharing  in  the 


WHAT  IS  LIBERAL  EDUCATION?          87 

dynamic  activities  of  contemporary  social  life. 
Not  in  the  things  of  the  past,  but  in  those  of 
the  present,  should  liberal  education  find  its 
beginnings  as  well  as  its  results.  Fortified 
by  the  resources,  interest,  and  insight  thus 
obtained,  it  can  be  made  to  embrace  areas 
of  culture  and  power  which  are  relatively  re- 
mote and  abstract. 

Cannot  our  teachers  of  the  liberal  arts, 
while  holding  their  high  ideals  and  conserv- 
ing their  refined  interests  and  tastes,  yet  keep 
themselves  in  vital  contact  with  the  world  of 
people  and  of  things  in  which  their  real  work 
is  to  be  accomplished?  Is  any  other  course 
open  to  the  supporters  of  a  liberal  education 
which  shall  meet  modern  requirements  of 
pedagogy  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  democratic 
society  on  the  other? 


IV 

WHY  STUDY  HISTORY? 

THE  citizen  of  the  modern  state  has,  as  his 
chief  occupation,  the  getting  of  a  living.  He 
finds  himself,  however,  a  member  of  a  very 
complex  society,  to  the  operations  of  which 
he  is  supposed  to  give  a  certain  amount  of 
time  and  energy  apart  from  that  demanded 
for  his  vocation.  He  has  his  assigned  role  in 
the  social  drama ;  but  on  the  modern  stage  of 
democracy  he  is  in  effect  also  obliged  to  assist 
in  deciding  on  the  composition  of  the  play 
and  in  dictating  the  conditions  and  methods 
of  its  performance. 

The  royal  rulers  of  the  past,  if  they  were 
wise,  gave  painstaking  and  sometimes  fierce 
attention  to  the  education  of  the  princes  who 
were  to  succeed  to  the  responsibilities  of  gov- 
erning. Modern  democracies  do  not  ignore 
the  need  of  educating  those  who  have  final 
authority  in  government  —  namely,  voting 


WHY  STUDY  HISTORY?  89 

citizens ;  but  available  evidence  seems  to  indi- 
cate that  they  are  far  from  having  developed 
scientific  programs  for  such  education.  The 
public  school  everywhere  makes  possible,  in- 
deed, the  ready  diffusion  of  information.  Read- 
ing, writing,  and  familiarity  with  books,  to- 
gether with  the  ready  availability  of  cheap 
printed  matter,  have  developed  on  an  exten- 
sive scale  the  possibilities  of  collective  and 
fluent,  even  though  superficial  and  unstable, 
thinking.  But  there  is  as  yet  scant  training 
and  instruction  in  public  schools  (and  hardly 
more  in  private  schools)  that  is  purposeful  and 
scientific  to  the  end  of  forming  right  social 
habits,  of  evoking  useful  social  ideals,  or  of 
fixing  serviceable  social  knowledge.  These 
important  educational  purposes  are  as  yet 
served  largely  by  extra-school  agencies  such 
as  the  press,  and  innumerable  voluntary  organ- 
izations, few  of  which  are  wholly  disinterested. 
Our  schools  hold  aloof,  partly  from  fear  of 
invading  fields  wherein  take  place  the  con- 
flicts of  partisanship,  but  also  from  ignorance 
as  to  how  purposeful  programs  of  broad  and 


90  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

effective  civic  education  can  be  worked  out 
and  applied. 

But  the  public  is  not  satisfied  with  the  in- 
adequate civic  education  given  through  the 
schools ;  and  now  the  schools  themselves  are 
exhibiting  symptoms  of  wholesome  discontent. 
American  public  high  schools  with  their  mil- 
lion and  more  pupils,  including  a  very  large 
proportion  of  those  of  our  young  people  who 
are  fitted  by  nature  and  opportunity  to  assume 
leadership,  are  being  appealed  to  as  the  re- 
sponsible agencies  in  training  for  citizenship. 
No  thoughtful  person  can  escape  the  convic- 
tion that  our  secondary  schools  ought  to  be  in 
peculiar  measure  the  meeting-places  wherein 
should  be  developed  the  attitudes  of  mind, 
the  ideals,  and  the  types  of  insight  which 
make  for  the  broader  civic  or  social  useful- 
ness. Secondary  schools  are  found  every- 
where; they  claim  the  finer  quality  of  our 
youth  ;  and  these  they  hold  during  that  won- 
derful period  when  childhood  passes  into  man- 
hood and  womanhood  —  the  stage  of  growth 
about  which,  from  the  dawn  of  human  life, 


WHY  STUDY  HISTORY?  91 

apparently,  have  clustered  the  rites,  ceremo- 
nies, and  trials  which  have  signalized  child- 
hood's flowering  into  useful  adult  life. 

The  schools  are,  indeed,  doing  something 
toward  training  for  citizenship ;  but  much  of 
that  training  is  incidental,  vaguely  defined, 
and  probably  ineffectual.  We  are  assured,  al- 
though hesitatingly,  that  the  study  of  history 
has  been  given  a  prominent  place  in  the  cur- 
riculum of  contemporary  secondary  education 
with  this  end  in  view.  The  public  has  certainly  ; 
encouraged  the  increased  study  of  history ;  in 
the  face  of  diminishing  interest  in  the  clas- 
sics, and  even  in  certain  of  the  sciences,  and 
in  spite  of  a  growing  demand  for  quasi-voca- 
tional subjects,  history  courses  have  more  than 
held  their  own.  Men  who  think  at  all  believe 
that  neither  princes  nor  voters  can  have  per- 
spective suitable  to  their  responsibilities  with- 
out the  study  of  history.  In  spite  of  the 
historian's  skepticism,  men  will  continue  to 
believe  that  past  experience  must  somehow 
provide  guidance  for  present  and  future  ac- 


92  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

tion.  Civic  ideals  are  expected  to  take  root 
and  grow  best  wherever  the  records  of  former 
achievement  and  aspiration  are  gathered  and 
made  intelligible. 

The  popular  faith  in  the  efficacy  of  history 
study  has  borne  fruit  in  the  recent  enormous 
development  of  that  subject  in  American  col- 
leges. It  has  also  assumed  marked  prominence 
in  the  programs  of  secondary  schools ;  and 
with  it  are  not  infrequently  linked  short 
courses  in  civil  government  and  economics. 
This  interest  is  primarily  due  to  the  convic- 
tion that  the  citizen  —  voter  or  not  —  needs  a 
purposeful  civic  education,  if  he  is  to  be  pre- 
pared to  meet  the  responsibilities  of  the  mod- 
ern social  organization.  Religious  education 
is  now  seldom  tolerated  in  public  schools; 
and  other  means  seem  to  decline  in  effective- 
ness as  a  means  of  the  broader  social  training. 
Such  innate  qualities  as  fear  and  the  instinct 
of  submission  to  authority  which  once  suf- 
ficed in  a  measure  as  foundations  for  moral 
and  ethical  training  are  not  adapted  to  mod- 
ern conditions  of  democracy  and  of  the  sci- 


WHY  STUDY  HISTORY?  93 

entific  attitude  toward  the  problems  of  life. 
The  social  or  group  life  of  the  schools  is,  as  a 
rule,  rich  in  possibilities  of  habituating  ado- 
lescents to  certain  lines  of  social  conduct; 
and  it  contributes  to  the  formation  of  a  vari- 
ety of  effective,  though  limited,  social  ideals. 
Too  often,  however,  the  habits  and  ideals  thus 
developed  fail  to  contribute  to  the  fuller  civic 
growth  essential  in  a  democracy;  they  may 
even  in  subtle  ways  serve  to  arrest  that  growth 
on  the  plane  of  what  is  psychologically  analo- 
gous to  the  class,  "gang,"  or  tribal  stage  of 
social  evolution.  In  spite  of  its  avowed  aims, 
the  American  secondary  school,  in  its  sponta- 
neous social  life,  often  exhibits  striking  mani- 
festations of  class  or  caste  consciousness ;  and 
at  heart  it  often  falls  far  short  of  the  ideals 
of  democracy. 

A  program  of  conscious  and  effective  civic 
education  (using  the  term  broadly  to  include 
all  forms  of  training  and  instruction  which 
aim  purposefully  to  fit  the  individual  for 
"  group  "  or  social  life)  is  unquestionably  the 
need  of  every  democratic  society ;  and  espe- 


94  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

cially  is  this  so  under  modern  conditions  where 
so  large  a  part  of  social  action  must  be  devel- 
oped on  the  plane  of  intelligent  understanding 
and  above  the  planes  of  the  instinctive  and 
of  the  customary  or  the  f  olkway.  In  America, 
we  have  to-day  no  such  program.  We  attempt 
to  use  the  study  of  history  to  this  end,  but  in  a 
half-hearted  and  futile  way.  We  also  utilize 
some  formal  studies  of  political  frameworks, 
calling  such  studies  civil  government,  as  a 
means  of  direct  civic  education.  Judged  by 
results,  however,  these  strivings  express  little 
more  than  aspirations. 

But  can  an  effective  program  of  civic  edu- 
cation be  composed,  in  any  considerable  part, 
of  the  courses  in  history  as  that  general  sub- 
ject is  now  organized  and  taught  in  secondary 
schools?  Or  is  any  extensive  study  of  that 
subject  a  necessary  prerequisite  to  other  studies 
which  may  be  more  purposefully  directed 
toward  education  for  citizenship?  It  is  the 
writer's  conviction  that  the  study  of  history, 
as  now  carried  on  in  secondary  schools,  does 


WHY  STUDY  HISTORY?  95 

not  "function"  in  appreciable  modifications 
of  civic  attitudes,  ideals,  or  knowledge ;  nor 
does  such  study  contribute  essential  or  valuable 
elements  to  other  studies  which  may  be  organ- 
ized in  the  interests  of  civic  or  social  education. 

That  an  effective  preparation  for  citizenship 
should  involve  study  of  history  is  beyond 
question ;  but  our  present  history  courses  are 
shaped  along  wrong  lines,  and  are  pedagogi- 
cally  unadapted  to  the  ends  sought.  It  is  not 
so  much  a  question  of  poor  teachers,  but  rather 
one  of  faultily  conceived  aims,  wrong  orienta- 
tion, and  the  use  of  pedagogical  methods  which 
defeat  the  true  ends  of  social  education. 

Perhaps  it  is  not  intended  that  the  study  of 
history  in  secondary  schools  shall  "function" 
in  the  shape  of  improved  capacity  for  the  re- 
sponsibilities of  citizenship.  This  position  is 
often  taken  by  historians  and  by  history  teach- 
ers themselves ;  they  disavow  any  such  "prac- 
tical "  purposes  in  their  work.  They  claim 
that  the  study  of  history  must  hold  a  place 
with  that  of  the  "  pure "  sciences,  and  with 
the  pursuit  of  art  "  for  its  own  sake."  We  can 


96  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

understand  and  approve  this  view  when  it 
affects  that  relatively  small  number  of  individ- 
uals who  have  special  tastes  and  interests  in 
the  study  of  history  as  a  means  of  general  cul- 
ture, and  who  may  even  aspire  to  constructive 
effort  in  this  field. 

But  if  we  accept  this  position,  why  press 
for  the  extensive  use  of  history  studies  in  sec- 
ondary education?  Does  not  the  subject  in 
that  case  belong  to  the  category  of  educational 
luxuries?  Should  publicly  supported  education 
be  asked  to  address  itself  at  great  expense  to 
such  ends?  The  fact  is  that  teachers  and 
writers  of  history  have  not  yet  honestly  and 
adequately  faced  the  question,  "  To  what  ends 
should  the  study  of  history  be  made  a  part  of 
secondary  education?"  Most  of  the  books 
and  articles  dealing  with  this  general  subject 
are  either  lacking  in  concreteness  or  they  rest 
on  psychological  interpretations  of  the  learn- 
ing processes  which  should  be  discarded.  It  is, 
of  course,  true,  that  it  is  as  yet  impossible  to 
formulate  in  terms  of  demonstrable  educa- 
tional utilities  the  aims  of  several  other  sub- 


WHY  STUDY  HISTORY?  97 

jects  now  taught  in  secondary  schools.  No  one 
has  yet  demonstrated  with  any  degree  of 
finality  just  why  girls  should  be  encouraged 
to  study  mathematics,  or  what  should  be  the 
controlling  aims  in  the  study  of  Latin.  These 
matters  still  belong  in  the  domain  of  enduring 
faiths ;  but  the  case  of  history  study  is  ren- 
dered serious  because  of  the  growing  popu- 
larity of  the  subject  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
obvious  need  of  a  more  adequate  social  edu- 
cation on  the  other.  Because  teachers  of  his- 
tory do  not  certainly  know  what  results  they 
seek,  in  terms  of  valid  educational  utilities, 
their  efforts  seem  to  be  largely  wasted,  if 
measured  in  terms  of  better  citizenship.  The 
amounts  of  time  and  of  conscientious  labor 
now  given  to  the  subject  are  great ;  but  the 
seed  seems  in  large  measure  thrown  upon  a 
rock.  Agencies  outside  the  school  and  often 
irresponsible  as  regards  the  larger  needs  of 
society  are  to-day  fashioning  the  civic  habits, 
ideals,  and  knowledge  which  underlie  social 
conduct.  The  responsibility  of  the  schools,  and 
especially  of  secondary  schools,  in  this  connec- 


98 

tion,  is  one  not  to  be  ignored;  they  must 
equip  themselves  anew  with  instruments  of 
tested  worth  and  they  must  learn  to  use  them 
in  the  service  of  the  social  well-being  of  the 
present  and  the  future. 

History  courses,  as  now  found,  especially  in 
secondary  schools,  reflect  only  the  most  super- 
ficial pedagogical  organization.  A  subject  of 
study  is  pedagogically  organized  along  right 
lines  when  its  materials  and  indicated  methods 
of  presentation  are  of  such  a  nature  as  to  serve 
the  purposes  of  economical  and  effective  me- 
diation between  learning  capacities,  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  attainment  of  ascertained 
educational  goals,  on  the  other.  What  ultimate 
objects  are  to  be  attained  in  teaching  to  first- 
year  pupils  in  high  school  Grecian  and  Roman 
history?  Until  this  question  is  answered,  there 
can  be,  obviously,  no  organization  of  the  sub- 
ject-matter of  ancient  history  of  a  nature  suit- 
able for  effective  teaching;  nor  can  profitable 
methods  of  presentation  be  formulated. 

It  is  not  enough  to  say  that  the  object  to 


WHY  STUDY  HISTORY?  99 

be  kept  in  view  is  simply  the  intellectual 
mastery  of  so  much  ancient  history.  There 
are  more  fundamental  questions :  Why  is  the 
learning  of  this  history  more  important  than 
the  learning  of  other  history?  What  con- 
ditions determine  the  elimination  and  reten- 
tion respectively  of  the  innumerable  facts  and 
elements  of  the  history  taught  ?  Can  we  guar- 
antee that  Grecian  and  Roman  history,  as 
taught,  will  "  function  "  as  knowledge,  power, 
or  culture?  What  are  the  native  intellectual 
powers  of  youth,  and  what  the  experience 
already  acquired  which  may  be  utilized  in 
rendering  the  teaching  of  such  history  peda- 
gogically  sound  ?  Finally,  what  are  the  meth- 
ods best  adapted  to  realize  the  aims  which 
may  eventually  appear  to  have  validity?  These 
are  questions  to  which  the  attention  of  the 
writers  and  especially  of  the  teachers  of  his- 
tory have  not  yet  been  sufficiently  turned,  so 
far  at  least  as  secondary  schools  are  concerned. 
As  respects  both  aims  and  methods,  the  vari- 
ous courses  of  history  teaching  are  still  in  es- 
sential respects  unexplored  territory. 


100          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

Indeed,  as  abler  and  more  scientific  men 
contribute  to  the  writing  and  interpretation 
of  history,  the  subject  seems  often  to  become 
less  rather  than  more  available,  as  a  rule,  for 
school  purposes.  History  is  for  the  historian 
more  and  more  a  record  of  the  sum  total  of 
those  social  events  and  processes  which  have 
significance  to  mature  and  scholarly  minds. 
Generalization  and  interpretation  play  a  con- 
stantly increasing  part  in  the  evolution  of  the 
subject;  thus  bringing  into  greater  promi- 
nence elements  of  an  abstract  nature.  These 
are  assimilated  with  difficulty,  and  often  with 
only  verbal  content  by  youthful  minds;  and 
the  empty  knowledge  resulting  avails  neither 
for  personal  culture  nor  for  social  usefulness. 
Furthermore,  both  historian  and  history  teacher 
tend  to  organize  and  interpret  the  sources  of 
history  without  reference  to  the  significance 
or  applicability  of  these  to  the  problems  of 
present  and  future  social  life.  However  neces- 
sary this  procedure  may  be  in  the  interests  of 
"pure"  or  scientific  history,  it  is  inevitable 
that  the  teaching  of  history  as  something 


WHY  STUDY  HISTORY?  101 

detached  from  and  unrelated  to  contemporary 
experience  will  seriously  and  often  fatally  im- 
pair its  pedagogical  value  and  availability,  so 
far  as  the  large  majority  of  younger  students 
is  concerned. 

It  may,  indeed,  with  Nietzsche,  be  ques- 
tioned whether,  for  the  average  person,  the 
study  of  history  has  significance  except  on 
the  basis  of  a  receptive  capacity  born  of  con- 
temporary interests  and  experiences.  "  He  de- 
sires to  experience  something  for  himself,  and 
feel  a  close-knit,  living  system  of  experiences 
growing  within  himself.  But  his  desire  is 
drowned  and  dizzied  in  the  sea  of  shams,  as 
if  it  were  possible  to  sum  up  in  a  few  years 
the  highest  and  notablest  experiences  of  an- 
cient times,  and  the  greatest  times  too." 

Following  the  thought  of  Nietzsche,  it  is 
probable  that  historian's  history,  and  espe- 
cially when  desiccated  and  capsuled  into  handy 
textbooks,  can  be  profitable  only  to  ripened 
students,  possessed  of  unusual  capacity  for 
abstract  thinking.  For  all  others,  though  we 
may  force  certain  portions  of  such  general- 


102          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

ized  and  condensed  history  into  mental  cold- 
storage  chambers,  it  remains  inert  and  devoid 
of  social  worth.  The  mind  is,  indeed,  able  at 
every  stage  of  growth  to  extract  from  the 
materials  of  history,  as  the  plant  extracts 
from  the  soil,  intellectual  and  spiritual  food, 
if  that  is  made  available.  Indeed,  in  the  lower 
grades  of  the  elementary  schools  much  has 
already  been  accomplished  in  this  direction. 
At  appropriate  stages,  the  fables,  hero  tales, 
stories  of  achievement,  and  biographies  are 
drawn  upon  to  meet  evident  interests  and  to 
reinforce  and  idealize  current  experience.  But 
in  the  upper  grades  and  in  high  schools  we 
still  cling  to  the  belief  that  highly  condensed 
generalizations  and  masses  of  dried  statements 
of  facts  can  "  function  "  as  enduring  educa- 
tion in  history,  to  say  nothing  of  any  fruc- 
tifying effects  on  social  attitude,  ideal,  or 
insight.  We  have  as  yet  only  foreshadow- 
ings  of  a  pedagogy  of  the  subject  which  shall 
make  it  the  handmaid  of  vital  social  education. 
History  teaching  fails  to  serve  as  an  instru- 
ment of  civic  education  in  the  secondary  school 


WHY  STUDY  HISTORY?  103 

because  its  aims  are  undefined  and  its  organi- 
zation and  study  are  pedagogically  unsound. 
Further  developments  in  the  direction  of  the 
purposes  and  methods  now  generally  approved 
will  not  help  the  situation.  "We  must  face  the 
question  of  a  broader  civic  education  anew ; 
and  we  must  find  for  that  purpose  means  and 
methods  among  which  what  is  now  recog- 
nized as  history  will,  indeed,  play  an  impor- 
tant but  not  a  controlling  part. 

What  must  be  the  character  and  scope  of 
an  effective  program  of  education  towards 
citizenship  ?  And  what  part  will  the  study  of 
history  play  therein  ?  At  the  outset,  it  should 
be  noted  that  the  instincts  of  fear  and  of  sub- 
mission to  authority  play  a  less  prominent 
role  in  social  control  than  was  formerly  the 
case.  An  effective  social  control  (which  is  the 
final  object  of  all  civic  and  moral,  and  of  much 
of  religious,  education)  must  henceforth  rest  in 
large  measure  on  intelligent  action.  Through 
long  periods,  society  organized  itself  about 
the  social  instincts;  and,  later,  also  for  long 


104          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

periods,  it  widened,  deepened,  and  strength- 
ened itself  on  the  basis  of  customs  and  other 
elements  of  a  social  inheritance  in  which  the 
products  of  scientific  thinking  played  but 
small  part.  But  these  later  ages,  characterized 
by  aspirations  toward  democracy,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  by  dispositions  toward  scientific 
method,  on  the  other,  require  that  social  con- 
trol shall  utilize  in  increasing  measure  the 
instruments  and  methods  of  intelligence. 

The  broader  social  education  will,  of  course, 
not  only  continue  to  recognize  and  to  use  the 
social  instincts,  but  it  will  shape  them  into 
useful  habits ;  it  will  make  and  reshape,  where 
necessary,  these  social  habits  which  we  call 
customs,  and  it  will  seek  to  make  right  atti- 
tudes and  right  conduct  customary;  but  in 
ways  and  to  degrees  hitherto  little  understood 
and,  perhaps,  not  always  approved,  it  will  seek 
to  render  intelligible  the  forms  and  motives 
of  right  conduct.  It  will  do  this  through  in- 
terpreting contemporary  social  action  and 
through  idealizing  the  higher  forms  of  service 
and  of  participation  in  living  society. 


WHY  STUDY  HISTORY?  105 

To  this  end  the  various  social  agencies  must 
be  brought  into  more  effective  cooperation. 
Home,  church,  workshop,  playground,  press, 
and  stage  are  all  agencies  of  social  education. 
But,  because  these  are  not  directly  the  crea- 
tions of  the  state,  their  share  in  social  educa- 
tion is  in  large  degree  beyond  present  public 
control  and  direction.  The  public  school,  how- 
ever, is  the  instrument  of  the  state ;  and  to  it 
the  state  gives  residuary  responsibilities  in  the 
broader  program  of  civic  education.  What 
other  agencies  cannot  or  will  not  do  in  an 
effective  and  practicable  scheme  of  social  edu- 
cation, the  public  school  must  do.  Especially 
will  it  fall  to  the  school  to  do  much  in  pro- 
moting social  knowledge  and  in  developing 
fruitful  social  ideals. 

The  modern  study  of  pedagogy  renders  it 
certain  that  the  school  will  best  accomplish 
its  mission  in  this  field  by  utilizing  in  a  fun- 
damental and  vital  way  the  social  environ- 
ment of  its  pupils.  The  school  itself  is  a  liv- 
ing, dynamic  society;  the  school  is  situate  in 
the  midst  of  a  social  milieu  which  exemplifies 


106          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

unnumbered  forms  of  social  activity,  and  which 
abounds  in  opportunities  for  those  most  effec- 
tive forms  of  social  education,  namely,  partici- 
pation in  social  activities,  on  the  one  hand, 
and,  on  the  other,  observation  of  such  activi- 
ties in  cases  where  participation  is  impracti- 
cable. 

But  intelligent  study  of  educational  proc- 
esses also  proves  that,  building  at  first  on  the 
foundations  of  suggestive  and  vital  experience, 
the  mind  is  soon  able  to  utilize  materials 
brought  from  afar.  On  the  levels  of  compre- 
hension made  possible  by  concrete  contact 
•with  contemporary  life,  the  pupil  is  able  to 
reach  out  in  space  and  time  and  to  draw  to 
himself  with  profit  the  contributions  in  verbal 
and  other  forms  which  history,  geography,  lit- 
erature, art,  and  the  like  have  to  make. 

Thus,  the  study  of  history  has,  indeed,  a 
place  in  the  broader  social  training  of  youth; 
but  it  must  serve  as  the  handmaid  of  a  richer 
and  more  composite  subject  than  has  yet  been 
described  in  the  curricula  of  secondary  educa- 
tion. In  ways  not  yet  clearly  foreseen,  we  must 


WHY  STUDY  HISTORY?  107 

discover  how  to  utilize  the  social  environment 
as  a  means  for  the  objective  study  of  social 
science,  as  this  is  capable  of  being  learned  by 
adolescent  youth.  In  the  execution  of  the 
programs  thus  formed,  we  shall,  from  time  to 
time,  and  often  in  large  measure,  draw  upon 
the  records  of  past  achievement  and  ideal  for 
those  things  which  will  cause  our  students  to 
discriminate,  to  stay  ready  generalization,  and 
to  feel  the  inspiration  of  great  thoughts  and 
noble  actions. 

But  the  formulation  of  this  program  of 
social  education  is  not  easy.  It  involves  an 
intelligent  understanding  of  the  stages  of  in- 
tellectual achievement  normally  possible  to 
adolescents  at  various  stages  of  growth. 
Teachers  in  college  and  school  are  as  yet 
none  too  firmly  convinced  of  the  possibilities 
of  the  study  of  pedagogy ;  and  their  attitude 
is  as  unsympathetic  as  it  is  uncomprehending 
toward  the  study  of  such  improved  methods 
of  teaching  as  must  rest  rather  on  knowledge 
of  the  learning  processes  in  children  than  on 
knowledge  of  the  subject-matter  of  studies. 


108  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

Nevertheless,  many  beginnings  have  been  made. 
The  programs  of  the  elementary  schools,  espe- 
cially in  the  lower  grades,  offer  many  sugges- 
tions. Here  and  there  secondary  school-teachers 
have  sensed  the  futility  of  prevailing  methods 
and  are  striving  for  something  better.  Numer- 
ous textbooks  on  the  teaching  of  civics  are  avail- 
able ;  and  these  show  a  steady  evolution  toward 
the  ideals  of  concrete  social  education.  Vari- 
ous sociologists  have  pointed  the  way,  even 
though  as  yet  uncertainly.  A  few  of  the  prom- 
inent historians  have  themselves  felt  the  pres- 
sure of  the  new  demand,  and  have  turned  aside 
from  their  own  constructive  work  to  reflect 
upon  the  problems  of  secondary  education. 

In  our  progress  toward  a  functioning  social 
education  in  which  the  study  of  history  shall 
play  its  part,  we  must  recognize  the  necessity 
of  basing  our  efforts,  except  in  rare  instances, 
on  contemporary  and  local  experience.  At  the 
outset  this  requires  that  we  shall  first  dis- 
criminate those  levels  or  elements  of  social 
life  which  are  normally  comprehensible  by 
children  at  different  stages  of  development. 


WHY  STUDY  HISTORY?  109 

Very  young  children,  indeed,  are  able  to  pos- 
sess themselves  of  those  phases  of  social  life 
and  experience  which  are  embodied  in  stories, 
fables,  and  biographies  as  currently  adapted ; 
and  from  these,  under  right  teaching,  they 
are  capable  of  profiting  greatly  as  regards 
social  education.  At  later  stages  of  growth, 
boys  and  girls  can  be  led  to  comprehend  and 
to  interpret  in  fairly  broad  ways  a  wide  range 
of  economic  activities;  and  the  insight  and 
ideals  thus  developed  may  be  greatly  rein- 
forced by  suitable  studies  of  the  correspond- 
ing economic  activities  characteristic  of  vari- 
ous historic  periods. 

Experience  will  show  us  that  as  mental  and 
spiritual  growth  take  place,  there  arrives  a 
time  when  large  numbers  of  children  become 
vitally  interested  in  group  action  along  quasi- 
political  lines.  Achievement  and  observation 
in  this  field  should  lay  the  foundations  for 
that  insight  which  will  make  the  study  of  the 
political  activities  of  various  historical  periods 
comprehensible  and  suggestive. 

Thus,  we  shall  find  at  every  stage  of  evolv- 


110          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

ing  intelligence  in  youth  manifestations  of 
interests  which  may  be  utilized  in  furthering 
the  development  of  social  insight  and  ideal  in 
new  directions  and  to  new  degrees  of  inten- 
sity; and  to  the  program  organized  for  this 
purpose  history  must  make  its  contributions. 
In  fact,  must  we  not  discover  and  cultivate 
such  interests  before  we  can  proceed?  In  the 
last  analysis,  no  effective  social  education,  and 
apparently  no  effective  study  of  history  is  pos- 
sible without  them. 

With  greater  maturity  will  appear,  at  least 
in  some  of  our  pupils,  capacities  for  more  ab- 
stract thinking,  and  for  more  comprehensive 
generalization.  At  this  stage,  an  understand- 
ing of  the  causes  and  consequences  of  the 
world-wide  interchange  of  Canadian  wheat, 
Kocky  Mountain  copper,  Manchester  cottons, 
Brazilian  coffee,  and  Australian  wools  will 
give  sufficient  foundations  for  studies  of  the 
struggle  for  India,  the  rise  of  Italian  cities, 
and  of  the  conquests  of  the  valley  of  the 
Nile.  These  studies,  however,  may  not  inter- 
est all ;  and  for  those  who  care  for  them,  in  most 


WHY  STUDY  HISTORY?  Ill 

cases,  they  should  be  regarded  as  means  only 
to  a  useful  knowledge  of  contemporary  social 
life  —  knowledge  which  ultimately  "  func- 
tions" in  control  of  some  sort.  Only  in  the 
case  of  the  exceptional  student  may  we  ex- 
pect the  delightful  study  of  history  "  for  its 
own  sake"  to  become  an  absorbing  pursuit; 
and  certainly  nothing  in  the  program  here  set 
forth  will  prevent  such  a  consummation. 

The  plan  of  civic  (or  social)  education  here 
foreshadowed  is  nowhere  yet  organized,  at 
least  in  the  field  of  secondary  education  where 
it  most  properly  applies.  In  French  public 
schools  earnest  strivings  after  a  broad  program 
of  moral  or  "  patriotic  "  education  as  a  substi- 
tute for  the  discarded  instruction  in  theology, 
have  produced  something  analogous  to  it;  but 
the  French  scheme  is  still  in  an  experimental 
stage  and  is,  in  many  respects,  rendered  in- 
effective by  the  practice  still  prevalent  in 
French  education  of  basing  nearly  all  peda- 
gogical devices  on  a  psychology  which  is  char- 
acteristic only  of  adult  minds.  We  have  every 
right  to  expect  that  out  of  our  American  col- 


112          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

leges,  where  education  is  being  studied  more 
and  more  as  a  science,  shall  come  men  of  con- 
structive mind  who  will  do  for  history  as  a 
means  for  social  education  what  kindred  minds 
have  recently  been  doing  for  history  as  a  field 
for  scientific  inquiry.  Mommsen,  as  we  are 
told  by  Professor  James  Harvey  Robinson, 
was  able  to  achieve  a  name  as  a  historian,  and 
yet  remain  long  ignorant  of  such  funda- 
mentals in  historical  interpretation  as  the  ice- 
age  and  totemism.  In  an  era  of  educational 
progress  like  our  own,  we  shall  not  have  to 
wait  long,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  for  leaders  who 
will  broaden  the  vision  of  the  teachers  of  his- 
tory and  will  cause  them  to  see  the  real  mean- 
ing of  an  education  that  makes  for  social 
efficiency. 


V 

THE  PRACTICAL  ARTS  IN  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

THE  place  of  the  manual  arts  has  been  much 
discussed  recently  with  especial  reference  to 
vocational  education.  Some  recent  excellent 
papers  also  present,  with  new  points  of  view, 
the  bearing  of  the  subject  on  general  or  lib- 
eral education.  The  writer's  experience  with 
certain  administrative  aspects  of  both  voca- 
tional and  liberal  education  suggests  a  few 
queries  which  appear  worthy  of  discussion  at 
the  present  time. 

Thanks  to  the  developments  of  the  last 
twenty-five  years,  we  have  a  great  body  of 
experience  on  which  to  draw ;  and  while  much 
of  it  fails  to  assist  our  constructive  thinking, 
it  lends  itself  at  least  to  the  drawing  of  con- 
clusions of  a  negative  nature. 

We  shall  be  able  to  discuss  this  department 
of  education  more  profitably  if  we  confine  our- 
selves to  a  fairly  definite  field.  At  the  risk  of 


114          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

seeming  to  narrow  the  territory  unduly,  the 
writer  asks  consideration  of  the  queries  and 
discussion  hereafter  presented,  in  connection 
with  the  area  of  child  life  comprehended  be- 
tween the  ages  of  twelve  and  fourteen  —  the 
last  two  years  or  grades  found  in  the  typical 
American  eight-grade  elementary  school ;  and 
in  order  that  there  may  be  no  uncertainty  as 
to  the  scope  of  the  subject,  he  purposes  to 
employ  the  term  "  practical  arts  "  as  a  com- 
prehensive phrase  to  include  all  such  branches, 
studies,  or  exercises  such  as  manual  training, 
manual  arts,  cooking,  sewing,  agriculture, 
printing,  and  related  subjects,  in  which  the 
conspicuous  element  in  process  and  realization 
is  manual  activity  in  pursuit  of  concrete  and 
objective  ends,  which  are  capable  of  being 
identified  with  the  fruits  of  the  vocational 
activities  of  mankind.  These  studies  are,  there- 
fore, contrasted  with  those  which  constitute  the 
rest  of  the  elementary  school  program  which 
are  relatively  abstract  and  involve  a  more  intel- 
lectual approach.  The  following  seem  now  to 
be  important  problems  for  discussion :  — 


PRACTICAL  ARTS  IN  LIBERAL  EDUCATION   115 

1.  Are  not  the  practical  arts,  as  factors  in  the 
program  of  studies  for  the  upper  grades,  suf- 
fering from  a  confusion  of  partially  contradic- 
tory aims  ? 

The  error  seems  widespread  that  the  same 
procedures  will  enable  us  to  realize  equally 
the  ends  of  liberal  and  of  vocational  education. 
Experience  now  proves  that  we  can  accomplish 
the  purposes  of  vocational  education  in  a  se- 
lected field  by  the  choice  of  appropriate  means 
and  methods.  However,  these  make  partial 
and,  often,  only  incidental  contributions  to 
some  of  the  important  ends  of  liberal  edu- 
cation, which  is  education,  not  in  produc- 
tion, but  in  broad  and  socialized  utilization;1 

1  Liberal  education  may  be  defined  in  various  ways,  but 
to  the  writer,  the  most  serviceable  definition  is  to  be  made 
by  contrasting  liberal  with  vocational  education  in  the  same 
way  that  production  and  consumption  (or  utilization)  are 
contrasted  in  social  and  economic  life.  Vocational  education 
is  designed  to  make  of  a  person  an  efficient  producer  ;  liberal 
education  may  be  designed  to  make  of  him  an  effective  con- 
sumer or  user.  The  liberally  educated  man  utilizes  the  prod- 
ucts and  services  of  many  producers;  but  because  of  his 
education  he  uses  them  well,  both  in  the  individual  and  in  the 
social  sense.  Through  the'effective  utilization  of  such  products 
and  services  he  raises  the  plane  of  his  own  life ;  and,  none  the 
less,  he  elevates  the  sources  of  the  goods  and  labor  which  he 


116          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

whereas,  the  procedures  suited  to  a  true  liberal 
education  may  develop  relatively  little  in  the 
way  of  vocational  power.  The  two  forms  of 
training  face,  if  not  in  opposite,  at  least  in 
widely  divergent  directions,  as  the  experience 
of  the  ages  testifies ;  yet  in  practical  arts  teach- 
ing to-day  we  are  striving  simultaneously  to 
follow  both  paths.  The  results  are  disappoint- 
ing to  the  partisans  of  each  purpose ;  and  the 
practical  arts  teacher  meets  the  usual  fate  of 
him  who  seeks  to  serve  two  masters. 

2.  Is  it  worth  while  to  insist  on  the  vocational 
aim  in  the  practical  arts  group  of  studies,  when 
these  constitute  but  a  single  feature,  and  often 
a  minor  one,  in  a  program  of  general  or  lib- 
eral education  ? 

Vocational  education  is  increasingly  neces- 
sary, and  we  shall  see  it  constantly  develop  in 

employs.  He  uses  good  literature,  rather  than  bad  ;  he  ex- 
acts from  other  producers  expert  rather  than  untrained  and 
fraudulent  service;  in  his  contacts  he  puts  a  premium  upon 
good  taste,  refinement,  and  right  morality ;  and  in  the  sphere 
of  more  material  consumption,  his  demands  lead  to  improve- 
ment both  in  the  quality  of  the  goods  he  obtains  and  in  the 
social  conditions  surrounding  their  production.  His  utiliza- 
tion elevates  himself  and  also  the  world  because  of  his  appre- 
ciation, his  insight,  his  sympathy. 


PRACTICAL  ARTS  IN  LIBERAL  EDUCATION   117 

appropriate  public  schools,  and  under  condi- 
tions which  promote  in  it  real  efficiency.  In 
the  general  school,  however,  time  as  well  as 
other  essential  elements  are  insufficient  to 
permit  the  realization  of  genuine  vocational 
power.  Efforts  in  the  direction  of  producing 
vocational  efficiency  as  a  by-product  in  a 
scheme  of  general  education  only  take  us  into 
the  land  of  make-believe.  We  have  far  too 
much  of  the  resulting  sham  vocational  educa- 
tion in  America  at  the  present  time.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  practical  arts  can  be  made  to 
play  an  active  and  fruitful  part  in  a  scheme 
of  liberal  education.  Let  a  boy  in  the  spirit  of 
the  amateur  make  a  few  articles  of  wood,  of 
metal,  and  of  clay ;  lead  him  to  try  his  hand 
at  cloth-making,  at  tillage,  and  at  printing; 
induce  him  to  build  on  the  resulting  basis  of 
rich,  even  though  fragmentary,  experience, 
some  comprehension  of  the  social  significance 
of  the  regions  of  enterprise  into  which  he  has 
made  curious  incursions  —  will  he  not,  on  this 
account,  be  a  larger,  more  intelligent,  more 
social  man?  Will  he  not  more  surely  enter 


118          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

into  the  broad  and  civic  utilization  of  the 
world  in  which  he  finds  himself,  because  of 
the  vital  contacts  thus  made  possible  ?  Voca- 
tional ideals,  and  capacity  for  intelligent  vo- 
cational choice,'may  come  from  this  wide,  even 
though  superficial,  participation ;  but  we  have 
no  right  to  expect  from  it  much  in  the  way  of 
direct  vocational  training.  The  schoolmaster 
has  erred  in  thinking  of  vocational  education 
as  a  semi-holiday  affair,  in  which  boys  work 
in  shops  whilst  wearing  clean  cuffs.  Liberal 
education  for  child  as  well  as  man  may  well 
involve  along  with  its  more  controlled  aspects, 
leisure,  the  following  of  strong  tastes,  and  the 
spirit  and  effort  of  the  amateur,  as  he  pursues 
his  avocation;  vocational  education  must  be 
more  serious,  more  effortful,  closer  to  the 
realities  of  practical  life  in  respect  to  the 
hours,  discipline,  surroundings,  and  strivings 
of  productive  labor.  Let  not  vocational  edu- 
cation come  too  early ;  neither  let  it  be  too 
long  deferred ;  but  especially  let  it  not  be  lost 
in  following  the  will  o'  the  wisp  of  manual 
training. 


PRACTICAL  ARTS  IN  LIBERAL  EDUCATION   119 

A  valuable  contribution  to  liberal  educa- 
tion can  be  derived  from  the  practical  arts, 
although  pedagogic  formalism  has  largely 
prevented  this  result  hitherto;  and  not  the 
least  important  element  will  be  the  economic 
insight,  the  industrial  intelligence  and  sympa- 
thy which,  as  Dean  Russell  shows,  can  be  built 
up  around  the  youthful  amateur's  participa- 
tion in  suitable  phases  of  human  occupation. 
Should  we  not,  then,  in  practical  arts  studies, 
frankly  differentiate  liberal  from  practical 
aims,  and  quite  firmly  relegate  the  latter  to 
the  vocational  schools  ? 

3.  Is  it  worth  while  in  the  practical  arts 
branches  to  defend  longer  a  pedagogy  of  aims 
and  methods  based  on  psychological  concep- 
tions which  are  being  discarded  in  other  de- 
partments of  education  ? 

The  very  phrase  "  manual  training  "  sug- 
gests the  older  notion  that  specific  and  inten- 
sive training  in  a  restricted  field  would  lead  to 
general  powers  of  habit,  insight,  and  ideal. 
The  idea  still  survives  in  the  persistent  efforts 
of  writers  on  manual  training  to  schematize 


120          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

"  logical "  courses,  to  enforce  "  type  "  studies, 
and  to  compel  generalized  appreciation  of 
such  qualities  as  the  "artistic"  and  "work- 
manship." The  failure  to  recognize  the  ge- 
netic order  in  the  development  of  the  powers 
of  childhood  is  not  confined  to  practical  arts 
teaching,  by  any  means;  but  such  failure  is 
peculiarly  disastrous  in  a  department  where 
we  had  a  right  to  expect  such  substantial  and 
valid  results  of  liberal  education  as  permanent 
interests  in  the  finer  material  things  of  life, 
heightened  appreciation  of  the  output  of  shop 
and  farm,  and  socialized  experience  in  a  variety 
of  the  channels  of  human  effort.  Would  it  not 
be  better  to  take  our  practical  arts  subjects 
out  of  the  cloudland  of  educational  mysticism, 
and  to  rehabilitate  them  in  a  world  where 
youthful  instincts,  contemporary  ideals,  a  grow- 
ing range  of  possibilities  of  social  utilization, 
and  the  crudeness  of  childish  and  adolescent 
powers  all  have  due  recognition  and  interpre- 
tation ?  The  normal  child  is  insatiable  in  his 
desires  to  express  in  constructive  activities  and 
with  concrete  materials  his  dawning  appreci- 


PRACTICAL  ARTS  IN  LIBERAL  EDUCATION    121 

ation  of  the  world  in  which  he  finds  himself ; 
his  efforts  evolve  gradually  from  the  largely 
purposeless  activities  which  serve  for  physical 
growth,  through  those  which  minister  con- 
sciously to  the  play  instinct,  and  into  others 
which  foreshadow  purposeful  efficiency  in  the 
quest  of  the  utilities  of  civilized  adult  life.  Can 
our  courses  in  practical  arts  not  do  more  to  seize 
upon  and  work  with,  instead  of  at  cross-pur- 
poses to,  these  fundamental  growth-processes  ? 
Should  not  the  youth  whose  creative  instincts 
are  strong,  and  who  is  destined  to  be  a  more 
or  less  socialized  consumer  of  many  wares 
from  many  hands,  he  encouraged  toward  a 
varied,  even  though  amateurish,  participation 
in  productive  effort  ?  Can  we  afford,  in  face 
of  these  opportunities,  and  in  the  limited  time 
at  our  disposal,  to  lose  ourselves  in  the  formal- 
isms, the  correlations,  the  logical  sequences, 
the  questionable  ideals  of  "finish,"  "thorough- 
ness," and  "  artistic  quality,"  which  have 
seemed  to  afflict  the  pedagogy  of  manual 
training,  and,  to  a  less  degree,  that  of  the 
household  arts  and  the  arts  of  tillage  ?  Would 


122          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

it  be  greatly  amiss  to  proclaim  as  our  chief 
purpose  in  practical  arts  education,  an  enriched 
and  varied  experience  along  lines  largely  sug- 
gested by  the  interplay  of  youthful  instincts 
and  environmental  influence,  not  least  of 
which  last  would  be  the  sympathetic  sugges- 
tion of  the  child's  teacher  ?  Even  though  such 
a  purpose  were  to  result  in  a  considerable  in- 
dividualization  of  programs;  in  the  general 
substitution  of  concrete  "  projects,"  each  func- 
tioning directly  in  some  preconceived  end  of 
worthy  personal  satisfaction,  for  schematized 
steps  in  instruction ;  and  in  the  development 
of  only  moderate  standards  of  thoroughness 
and  artistic  quality ;  might  we  not,  neverthe- 
less, expect  a  more  vital  interest,  a  more  real 
growth,  and  a  richer  contribution  to  the  im- 
portant ends  of  liberal  education,  because  of 
the  extent  to  which  appeal  is  made  to  individ- 
ual initiative  and  other  qualities  of  self-active 
childhood  ?  Granted  the  extraordinary  admin- 
istrative difficulties  involved  in  such  a  pro- 
gram, we  shall  never  learn  how  to  deal  with 
the  difficulties  in  this  sphere  of  action  until 


PRACTICAL  ARTS  IN  LIBERAL  EDUCATION   123 

we  know  toward  what  goals  and  under  what 
impelling  motives  we  are  moving. 

4.  Is  it  profitable  to  permit  practical  arts 
subjects  to  be  deflected  from  their  important 
purposes  by  considerations  of  correlation  ? 

This  query  is  less  pertinent  in  relation  to 
upper-grade  work  than  elsewhere;  neverthe- 
less, even  here  a  satisfactory  theory  of  the  pur- 
poses of  practical  arts  instruction  is  confused 
by  over-insistence  on  correlation.  It  must  be 
recognized,  of  course,  that  we  may  yet  evolve 
a  program  of  school  activities  in  which  certain 
large  strands  or  units  of  organized  effort  fun- 
damentally related,  on  the  one  hand,  to  the 
needs  of  genetic  development  in  the  individual, 
and,  on  the  other,  to  the  educative  contribu- 
tions of  the  environment,  shall  form  the  sources 
and  provide  the  motives  for  the  specialized 
and  often  fragmentary  activities  which  now 
constitute  the  program  of  studies  in  the  ele- 
mentary school.  This  possibility  should  not, 
however,  be  made  the  pretext  for  the  artificial 
attempts  at  correlation  often  found.  Drawing 
and  other  art  subjects,  mathematics,  science, 


124          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

vernacular  language,  literature,  history,  and 
hygiene,  all  have  their  applications  in  practical 
arts  teaching,  and  this  subject,  also,  makes  at 
least  incidental  contributions  to  them  in  turn. 
A  natural  and  unforced  correlation  is  open  to 
no  objection ;  but  most  prevailing  schemes  to 
that  end  are  impractical,  unpedagogical,  and 
fruitful  of  harm  to  all  subjects  involved.  It 
may  be  doubted  whether  even  the  attempt  to 
drive  drawing  and  manual  training  in  the 
double  harness  of  correlation  has  not  injured 
the  teaching  of  each  subject.  In  other  words, 
until  the  Herbartian  conceptions  of  a  reor- 
ganized scheme  of  studies  shall  have  reached 
the  stage  of  a  developed  and  tested  program 
of  teaching  method,  ought  we  not  to  regard 
each  principal  subject  as  involving  its  own  es- 
sential aims,  means,  and  methods,  the  realiza- 
tion of  which  can  be  assisted  by  a  moderate 
amount  of  natural  correlation,  but  which  the 
supposed  interests  of  a  unified  program  must 
not  be  permitted  to  nullify  ? 

5.  In  the  present  stage  of  educational  the- 
ory, can  we  not  find  abundant  justification  for 


PRACTICAL  ARTS  IN  LIBERAL  EDUCATION   125 

practical  arts  instruction  based  on  a  wide 
range  of  units,  or  projects,  selected  from  the 
principal  fields  of  industry,  agriculture,  and 
household  arts,  each  adapted  to  the  powers 
and  active  interests  of  the  stage  of  youthful 
development  to  be  ministered  to,  and  each  de- 
signed to  make  only  such  exactions  on  the 
pupil  as  regards  thoroughness,  scientific  analy- 
sis, elaborateness,  and  conscious  application 
of  art  and  science,  as  shall  prove  fairly  natural 
and  profitable? 

Men  and  women  till  the  soil,  fashion  objects 
of  wood,  work  metals,  weave  cloth,  make 
clothing,  prepare  foods,  print  books,  build 
houses,  shape  vessels  of  clay,  manufacture 
shoes,  erect  machines.  In  these  and  other 
fields,  applying  creative  activities  to  materials, 
they  achieve  self -development  and  a  beneficent 
mastery  of  nature.  From  each  of  these  fields 
it  is  possible  to  select  units  of  achievement 
adapted  to  the  powers  of  youth  and  tending 
to  elicit  its  ambitious  efforts.  Furthermore, 
a  large  number  of  these  projects  function 
actively  in  the  personal  needs  or  social  envi- 


126  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

ronment  of  youth ;  and  they  lend  themselves 
as  useful  means  of  interpreting  contemporary 
economic  life,  of  stimulating  vocational  ideals, 
and  of  calling  forth  latent  powers.  Hence 
such  a  program  contributes  genuinely  to  lib- 
eral education,  giving  insight,  appreciation, 
and  ideals  with  reference  to  broad  social  utili- 
zation. 

Suppose  that  the  boy  of  twelve  or  fourteen 
choose  his  projects  from  the  following :  the 
growing  of  selected  vegetables  or  other  plants ; 
the  making  of  pieces  of  playground  apparatus 
or  articles  of  furniture  for  the  home;  the 
varnishing  of  a  school  desk ;  the  cleaning  and 
repairing  of  a  bicycle,  faucet,  lock,  or  sewing 
machine;  the  sharpening  of  a  collection  of 
cutlery  used  at  home ;  the  half-soling  of  a  few 
pairs  of  shoes ;  the  constructing  of  some  steps 
of  concrete ;  the  binding  of  some  sets  of 
magazines ;  the  mounting  of  photographs  or 
framing  of  pictures ;  the  preparing  of  articles 
of  food  used  in  camp ;  the  printing  of  a 
pamphlet ;  and  the  executing  of  hundreds  of 
other  undertakings  which  educational  inge- 


PRACTICAL  ARTS  IN  LIBERAL  EDUCATION    127 

nuity  can  discover.  If,  within  the  capacity  of 
the  school,  and  the  directive  power  of  the 
teacher,  he  makes  choices,  and  carries  his  pro- 
jects to  a  successful  outcome ;  if,  in  doing  so, 
he  reads,  designs,  compares,  and  is  led  to  com- 
prehend such  scientific  and  artistic  principles 
as  are  not  too  deeply  involved  in  his  work, 
will  he  not  have  obtained  a  substantial  addi- 
tion to  liberal  education  ?  Is  it  of  fundamental 
importance  that  he  shall  have  completed  all 
the  steps  in  some  abstract  series  of  exercises  ? 
Suppose  he  has  not  reached  the  degree  of 
thoroughness,  precision,  artistic  or  scientific 
appreciation  commonly  exacted  by  craftsman's 
standards  —  can  we  not  apply  here  the  same 
tests  of  childish  growth  and  unfoldment  that 
we  avail  ourselves  of  in  other  departments  of 
the  program  of  studies  ? 

6.  In  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades,  must 
not  the  practical  arts,  as  described  above,  al- 
ways be  taught  by  a  departmental  or  special 
teacher,  equipped  to  give  guidance  in  as  many 
of  the  foregoing  lines  as  possible  ? 

There  is  no  other  practicable  way ;  such  a 


128          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

teacher  can  hardly  be  expected  to  reach  a 
journeyman's  capacity  in  each  of  the  special 
subjects,  but  he  must  have  worked  in  all  those 
from  which  projects  are  drawn.  He  must  be  a 
"handy"  man,  resourceful,  ingenious,  sym- 
pathetic with  childish  crudities.  It  is  improb- 
able that  any  woman  can  carry  out  the  pro- 
gram described  for  boys ;  and,  equally,  only  a 
woman  should  give  the  work  for  girls.  The 
importance  of  holding  to  the  amateur's  stand- 
ards and  spirit  rather  than  to  those  of  the 
journeyman  must  be  insisted  on. 

The  foregoing  theory  of  manual  or  practi- 
cal arts  teaching  finds  analogies  in  certain 
other  subjects  of  the  elementary  school  curric- 
ulum, such  as  literature,  music,  history,  hy- 
giene, practical  science,  and  civics.  In  the 
early  stages  of  each  of  these  subjects,  modern 
pedagogy  insists  on  the  utilization  of  units 
touching  the  dominant  interests,  and  not  re- 
mote from  the  spontaneous  learning  powers 
of  children.  Literary  selections  which  readily 
carry  themselves  into  the  graces  of  childhood ; 


PRACTICAL  ARTS  IN  LIBERAL  EDUCATION    129 

songs  easily  learned  and  retained;  biogra- 
phies, myths,  and  historical  stories ;  attractively 
presented  descriptions,  interpretations,  and 
admonitions  regarding  the  conservation  of 
health ;  explanations  of  natural  phenomena, 
calculated  to  satisfy  native  and  induced  curi- 
osity ;  and  actual  contact  with,  and  conscious 
service  in,  the  environing  activities  of  social 
life  —  these  are  some  of  the  instances  where 
the  ends  of  a  true  liberal  education  of  children 
are  being  achieved  by  pedagogical  procedures 
wherein  logical  organization  of  subject-mat- 
ter, formalism  of  method,  and  abstract  stand- 
ards remote  from  childhood  are  at  a  discount. 
Each  subject  presents  later  steps  wherein  or- 
ganization along  more  rigid  lines,  and  the  em- 
ployment of  the  more  artificial  learning  pro- 
cesses, may  be  necessary ;  but  the  foundations 
of  interest,  imagination,  and  appreciation  have 
then  been  laid.  In  practical  arts  teaching  the 
place  for  drill,  systematic  approach,  and  ap- 
proximation of  journeyman's  standards,  is  in 
the  vocational  school. 


VI 

DIFFERENTIATED  PROGRAMS   OF   STUDY  FOR 
OLDER  CHILDREN  IN  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOLS 

IN  attempting  to  compare  American  with 
European  systems  of  education,  the  writer  has 
reached  the  following  conclusions,  among 
others :  (a)  In  the  education  of  younger  chil- 
dren, of  approximately  the  ages  five  to  twelve, 
American  elementary  schools  compare  favor- 
ably in  spirit,  methods,  and  results  with  cor- 
responding schools  in  European  countries; 
but  (6),  on  the  other  hand,  American  schools 
are  as  a  rule  relatively  inefficient,  so  far  as  the 
education  of  the  large  majority  of  children  of 
the  ages  from  twelve  to  sixteen  is  concerned. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  phases  of 
this  subject  worthy  of  fuller  consideration:  — 

(a)  American  children  go  to  school  willingly 
during  their  earlier  years.  The  classroom  dis- 
cipline in  the  lower  grades  is  mild  and  the 
atmosphere  homelike.  Teachers  are  interested, 
and  usually  appear  to  be  equal  to  the  tasks  set 


PROGRAMS  OF  STUDY  131 

before  them.  The  program  of  studies  presents 
certain  definite  goals  in  reading,  writing,  spell- 
ing, and  arithmetic,  in  which  subjects  progress 
is,  as  a  rule,  obvious.  Other  subjects  of  study 
of  a  less  formal  nature,  such  as  general  read- 
ing and  literature,  music,  drawing,  hygiene, 
practical  arts,  and  nature  study  serve  to  vital- 
ize the  more  formal  subjects.  The  children 
gain  steadily  in  powers  of  expression,  and  at 
the  same  time  grow  in  general  experience  and 
powers  of  appreciation. 

(6)  On  the  other  hand,  in  the  upper  grades 
of  the  elementary  schools  and  in  the  case  of 
retarded  children  beyond  the  ages  of  eleven 
or  twelve,  teachers  in  American  schools  often 
have  great  difficulty  in  making  their  work  in- 
teresting and  significant  to  their  pupils.  Some 
subjects,  such  as  geography,  history,  and  arith- 
metic, have  had  their  most  interesting  phases 
presented  in  the  lower  grades.  After  the  age 
of  twelve,  in  most  American  schools,  little 
visible  progress  is  made  in  ability  to  read 
aloud,  to  use  the  pen,  to  compose,  to  sing,  to 
speak  effective  English,  and  to  perform  the 


132  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

simpler  operations  in  arithmetic.  For  these 
older  pupils,  educational  goals,  as  formulated, 
seem  to  lack  in  purposefulness.  The  outlines 
of  study  in  such  subjects  as  geography,  his- 
tory, and  literature  tend  to  be  over-ambitious, 
whilst  pedagogical  methods  employed  in  teach- 
ing arithmetic,  drawing, and  the  various  phases 
of  English  expression  are  often  unsound.  In 
home  and  library  reading,  as  a  rule,  older 
pupils  continue  to  manifest  a  growing  capacity 
and  interest,  but  in  most  other  subjects  atten- 
tion and  application  are  weak  and  the  results 
uncertain.  The  older  and  less  ambitious  teach- 
ers transform  nearly  all  the  work  of  these 
grades  into  a  dull  drill  in  which  routine  memo- 
rization plays  the  largest  part.  The  younger 
and  more  ambitious  teachers  seem  often  to  be 
wrestling  with  tasks  that  are  beyond  them. 
Manual  training,  arithmetic,  and  history  are 
often  taught  by  women  teachers  who  seem  un- 
able to  make  these  subjects  vital  and  signifi- 
cant to  the  boys  of  their  classes. 

(c)  A  considerable  percentage  of  boys  and 
girls  of  twelve  to  fifteen  years  of  age  belong 


PROGRAMS  OF  STUDY  133 

to  what  is  known  as  the  retarded  class,  being 

'  o 

from  two  to  five  grades  behind  the  point  at 
which  they  should  have  been  had  they  entered 
school  at  the  usual  age  and  made  steady  prog- 
ress thereafter.  For  these  retarded  pupils,  the 
work  of  the  lower  grades  is  manifestly  un- 
suited.  A  boy  of  thirteen  in  a  fourth  grade  is 
usually  an  educational  misfit  of  the  most  pro- 
nounced character,  no  matter  how  excellent 
the  teaching  in  that  grade  may  be.  It  is  sel- 
dom that  teachers  of  the  lower  grades  are  able 
to  take  personal  interest  in  retarded  pupils. 
They  have  neither  the  time,  ability,  nor  dis- 
position to  deal  with  pedagogical  problems 
presented  by  older  boys  and  girls. 

(d)  At  or  about  the  age  of  fourteen  a  con- 
stantly increasing  number  of  American  chil- 
dren enter  the  public  high  school.  More  than 
half  of  these,  as  a  rule,  will  attend  not  over 
two  years.  At  present,  something  over  one 
per  cent  of  the  population  of  the  United  States 
is  in  constant  attendance  on  secondary  schools. 
No  longer  do  these  schools  attract  only  the 
children  of  cultivated  homes  or  of  parents 


134          EDUCATIONAL  KEADJUSTMENT 

having  ample  means.  Laborers  and  other  per- 
sons of  moderate  means  now  send  their  chil- 
dren in  large  numbers  to  high  school  for  one 
or  two  years  of  education  beyond  that  obtain- 
able in  the  elementary  school.  But  for  those 
pupils  who  stay  but  one  to  two  years  in  the 
high  school  the  usual  programs  of  study  are 
ineffective  and  barren.  The  first  two  years  of 
the  traditional  high  school  program  offer,  as 
a  rule,  but  a  limited  range  of  subjects,  and 
these  are  of  an  essentially  preparatory  nature. 
Algebra,  geometry,  ancient  and  modern  foreign 
languages,  ancient  history,  English  literature, 
and  English  expression  —  these  represent  the 
staple  program,  and  their  pedagogic  treatment 
is  commonly  formal  and  abstract.  Teachers  of 
the  first  and  second  year  subjects  in  the  high 
school  are  often  young,  inexperienced,  and 
without  special  training.  The  formal  courses 
presented  in  English,  foreign  languages,  math- 
ematics, and  similar  subjects  may  be  the  best 
preparation  for  pupils  destined  to  finish  high 
school  work  and  pass  into  college,  but  any 
careful  examination  of  the  work  of  those  classes 


PROGRAMS  OF  STUDY  135 

of  students  who  are  not  preparing  for  college 
will  show  that  the  educational  outcome  for 
them  is  small  indeed.  Not  infrequently  the 
character  of  the  work  presented  and  the 
methods  employed  exert  a  decidedly  negative 
influence  in  the  shape  of  a  destruction  of  in- 
tellectual interests  and  the  creation  of  distaste 
for  all  forms  of  study  and  school  work.  Every- 
where in  our  high  schools  may  be  found  large 
numbers  of  pupils  of  only  moderate  ability 
and  ambition  who  are  being  educated  in  the 
company  of  others  who  are  destined  to  go  to 
college.  The  less  bright  pupils  are  handicapped 
at  every  stage  of  their  educational  career.  Even 
when  commercial  subjects  and  the  practical 
arts  are  introduced  into  high  school  curricu- 
lums,  these  subjects  are  either  inaccessible  to 
first  and  second  year  pupils  or  else  are  treated 
in  a  formal  manner  as  introductory  to  some- 
thing more  substantial  to  come  later.  It  is 
often  said  that  the  rapid  increase  in  attendance 
on  high  schools  is  proof  of  the  satisfactory 
character  of  their  early  work.  There  is  little 
substantial  evidence  that  this  is  the  case,  how- 


136          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

ever.  The  large  increase  of  attendance  is  pri- 
marily due  to  social  changes  and  the  ambition 
of  parents  that  their  children  shall  not  enter 
on  vocational  occupations  too  soon  and  shall 
not  in  the  mean  time  remain  idle.  A  constantly 
enlarging  proportion  of  parents  desire  to  pro- 
vide a  cultural  education  for  their  children 
beyond  the  fourteenth  year.  They  are  not, 
however,  prepared  to  carry  the  burden  beyond 
the  sixteenth  year  of  the  life  of  the  boy  or 
girl,  the  age  at  which  the  nature  of  the  pupil, 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  calls  of  industry,  on 
the  other,  are  apt  to  unite  in  effectively  ap- 
pealing to  the  vocational  interests  of  young 
people.  Nowhere  in  American  secondary  edu- 
cation is  a  systematic  provision  made  for  the 
cultural  education  of  youths  from  fourteen  to 
sixteen  years  of  age.  For  pupils  who  drop  out 
at  this  later  age,  therefore,  the  charge  must 
hold  that  the  latter  part  of  their  education  has 
been  relatively  ineffective. 

If  the  education  of  American  children  of 
twelve  to  sixteen  years  of  age  is  to  be  rendered 


PROGRAMS  OF  STUDY  137 

more  effective,  several  kinds  of  constructive 
action  are  necessary.  Teachers  may  be  better 
trained ;  more  scientific  pedagogical  methods 
in  subjects  already  taught  may  be  devised; 
the  active  cooperation  of  the  home  and  other 
educational  agencies  may  be  increased ;  and 
vocational  schools  for  children  over  fourteen 
years  of  age,  paralleling  schools  devoted  to 
liberal  education,  may  be  organized.  Obvi- 
ously, the  traditional  European  practice  of 
making  relatively  more  costly  provision  for 
children  of  the  more  favored  classes,  as  such, 
cannot  be  tolerated  in  America.  Equality  of 
educational  opportunity  is  to  be  regarded  as 
a  guiding  principle  in  whatever  may  be  done 
in  public  schools. 

It  is  the  belief  of  the  writer  that  the  most 
necessary  changes  toward  rendering  the  phases 
of  education  here  under  consideration  more 
effective  are  essentially  administrative.  They 
involve  an  increasing  flexibility  in  curriculums 
and  more  purposeful  programs  of  study  than 
are  at  present  available.  The  special  problems 
involved  may  be  presented  in  the  shape  of  a 


138          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

series  of  questions  to  which,  for  the  sake  of 
eliciting  discussion,  tentative  answers  express- 
ing one  point  of  view  are  appended :  — 

1.  Is  not  the  uniform  program  of  study  now 
commonly  obtaining  in  the  seventh  and  eighth 
grades  of  the  American  elementary  school 
overloaded  with  different  subjects  ? 

English  literature,  the  various  branches  of 
English  expression,  history,  geography,  arith- 
metic, drawing,  practical  arts,  hygiene,  and 
music  are  always  found ;  attempts  are  con- 
stantly being  made  to  introduce  into  the  upper 
grades  such  subjects  as  foreign  language,  al- 
gebra, constructive  geometry,  bookkeeping, 
and  special  phases  of  industrial  arts.  In  many 
of  these  studies,  the  standards  are  necessarily 
superficial  to  a  marked  degree.  For  the  teach- 
ing of  some  of  them,  schools  are  quite  lacking 
in  suitable  equipment,  and  teachers  are  defi- 
cient in  training.  It  is  impossible  to  avoid  the 
conclusion  that  the  prevailing  effort  in  Amer- 
ican elementary  education  to  keep  the  pro- 
gram of  study  uniform  for  all  children  alike 
leads  to  superficiality,  mal-adaptation  and  an 


PROGRAMS  OF  STUDY  139 

overtaxing  of  the  resources  of  the  average 
teacher. 

2.  Is  it  desirable  that  in  our  American  ele- 
mentary schools,  opportunities  should  exist 
for  the  beginnings  of  foreign  language  study 
on  the  part  of  such  pupils  as  need  or  desire 
it,  at  or  about  the  age  of  twelve  ? 

It  is  generally  conceded  that  a  foreign  lan- 
guage, rightly  taught,  can  be  more  effectively 
learned  at  the  age  of  twelve  than  later.  The 
most  conspicuous  advantage  possessed  by  Eu- 
ropean school  children  over  American  is  found 
in  the  opportunities  afforded  them  to  begin 
foreign  language  study  relatively  early.  Prob- 
ably few  American  children,  as  compared  with 
European,  should  be  induced  to  study  a  for- 
eign language ;  but  there  are  the  best  of  reasons 
why  opportunities  should  exist  for  those  who 
have  special  talents  in  this  direction  or  for 
whom  a  higher  education  is  a  matter  of  strong 
probability.  It  should  be  evident,  however, 
that  it  is  easily  possible  to  waste  time  in  the 
study  of  foreign  languages.  Unless  such  lan- 
guages are  taught  by  effective  pedagogical 


140          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

methods,  time  devoted  to  this  field  may  be 
wholly  misspent.  Only  in  one  way  can  such 
study  be  made  effective.  Special  classes  must 
be  formed  of  those  having  the  ability  and  the 
desire  to  apply  themselves  to  the  subject,  and 
competent  special  teaching  provided.  It  is  evi- 
dent that  this  can  only  be  brought  about 
through  the  inauguration  of  a  flexible  program 
of  elementary  education  for  the  upper  grades. 
Obviously,  objection  should  be  made  to  any 
program  of  elementary  education  making 
mandatory  the  study  of  a  foreign  language. 
Attempts  of  this  character  commonly  fail  in 
the  American  scheme  of  elementary  education, 
and  it  is  to  be  expected  that  they  should  fail. 

3.  Is  it  desirable  that  pupils  of  twelve  to 
fourteen  years  of  age  should  be  offered  the 
opportunity  to  take  substantial  courses  in  the 
practical  arts  ? 

Every  administrator  is  aware  that  a  consid- 
erable number  of  boys  and  girls  find  in  the 
various  divisions  of  the  practical  arts  oppor- 
tunities for  expression  and  interest  not  to  be 
obtained  in  other  subjects.  The  introduction 


PROGRAMS  OF  STUDY  141 

of  manual  training  and  manual  arts  has  ac- 
complished something  in  this  direction.  Never- 
theless, the  one  and  a  half  or  two  hours  per 
week  usually  devoted  to  this  subject  is  insuf- 
ficient time  in  which  to  produce  satisfactory 
results  either  for  pupils  or  teachers.  There  is 
no  defensible  reason  why  the  school  day 
should  not  be  longer  for  older  children  than 
is  found  in  the  prevailing  practice  at  present ; 
and  there  are  good  reasons  why  special  classes 
in  the  practical  arts,  employing  as  much  as 
ten  or  twelve  hours  per  week,  should  be  or- 
ganized. Obviously,  such  courses  should  not 
be  made  obligatory  upon  all  pupils,  but  should 
be  alternative  to  other  types  of  work  having 
demonstrated  educational  value.  Here  again, 
flexibility  in  the  program  of  education  for 
older  children  should  be  permitted. 

4.  Is  it  desirable  that  pupils  of  from  twelve 
to]  fourteen  years  of  age  should  have  as  an 
option,  alternative  to  courses  in  foreign  lan- 
guage or  in  practical  arts,  in  the  elementary 
school,  a  course  of  from  eight  to  ten  hours 
per  week,  consisting  primarily  of  commercial 


142          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

arithmetic,  the  beginnings  of  bookkeeping, 
business  penmanship,  business  English,  and 
typewriting  ? 

Such  a  course  would  offer  fairly  definite 
goals  and  would  tend  to  produce  on  the  part 
of  pupils  electing  it  fairly  definite  and  tan- 
gible educational  results.  A  certain  measure 
of  preparation  for  some  future  vocation  would 
undoubtedly  follow  from  this  as  from  courses 
previously  discussed,  although  the  vocational 
aim  for  children  of  the  elementary  school 
period  should  never  be  dominant.  Typewrit- 
ing, business  English,  etc.,  are  subjects  that 
can  readily  be  learned  by  pupils  from  twelve 
to  fourteen  years  of  age. 

5.  In  view  of  the  foregoing,  is  it  not  prac- 
ticable and  desirable,  where  upper-grade 
classes  are  sufficiently  numerous,  to  organize 
the  higher  work  of  the  elementary  school  in 
such  a  way  that  certain  studies,  such  as  Eng- 
lish literature,  English  expression,  history, 
civics,  geography,  music,  hygiene,  and  the 
like,  shall  be  taken  in  common  by  all  pupils; 
while,  in  addition,  any  one  of  four  possible 


PROGRAMS  OF  STUDY  143 

options  may  be  taken  by  groups  of  pupils  to 
complete  their  respective  programs  of  study ; 
these  options  to  consist  of  (a)  a  foreign  lan- 
guage and  mathematics;  (6)  practical  arts 
(for  boys),  arithmetic  and  drawing ;  (c)  prac- 
tical arts  (for  girls),  arithmetic  and  art  study ; 
and  (d)  commercial  subjects? 

As  the  curriculum  of  the  elementary  school 
is  now  organized,  such  alternative  programs 
would  seem  to  present  the  maximum  possible 
adaptation  to  the  needs  of  different  classes  of 
young  people.  Each  program  would  involve 
desirable  forms  and  amounts  of  general  edu- 
cation, while  at  the  same  time  providing  cer- 
tain studies  adapted  to  the  needs  and  inter- 
ests of  those  various  groups  of  children  who 
would  probably  desire  to  prepare  for  college 
on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other  for  voca- 
tional schools  and  for  practical  life. 

6.  In  order  that  such  a  plan  might  be 
made  administratively  feasible,  would  it  not 
be  practicable  in  cities  and  other  populous 
centers  to  establish  separate  schools  for  chil- 
dren from  twelve  to  fourteen  years  of  age, 


144          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

leaving  the  education  of  children  under  twelve 
to  local  schools,  staffed,  perhaps,  entirely  by 
women  teachers  and  principals? 

7.  Would  not  such  concentration  of  the 
older  pupils  make  possible  the  introduction 
of  departmental  teaching,  the  employment  of 
a  larger  proportion  of  men  teachers,  and  a 
more  satisfactory  working  equipment  for  older 
children  ? 

In  the  city  of  Fitchburg,  Massachusetts,  is 
found  a  central  school  of  this  character,  con- 
taining about  one  third  of  the  seventh  and 
eighth  "grade  pupils  of  that  city.  Children 
may  come  to  this  school  from  any  part  of 
Fitchburg.  In  it  the  children  may  take  any 
one  of  four  programs  of  study,  substantially 
as  outlined  above.  It  is  expected  that  pupils 
finishing  any  one  of  these  divisions  will  find 
in  the  high  school  or  in  vocational  schools 
opportunities  for  a  continuation  of  their  work. 
The  advantages  here  found  to  result  from  the 
concentration  of  seventh  and  eighth  grades  are 
many.  Apart  from  the  possible  adaptation  of 
the  curriculum  to  the  needs  of  pupils,  discip- 


PROGRAMS  OF  STUDY  145 

plinary  difficulties  are  lessened  and  a  more 
effective  contact  with  the  high  school  is  made 
possible.  The  esprit  de  corps  of  such  a  school 
becomes  marked. 

8.  Is  the  plan  herein  proposed  an  effective 
substitute  for  the  intermediate  high  school,  as 
this  is  known  in  certain  of  the  Western  cities 
of  the  United  States? 

For  many  years  articles  have  appeared  in 
educational  magazines  defending  the  six  years* 
high  school  plan.  This  is  designed  to  have 
the  effect  of  reducing  the  elementary  school 
period  to  six  years.  Most  of  the  arguments 
urged  in  favor  of  the  six  years'  high  school 
are  sound,  provided  such  a  high  school  could 
give  due  consideration  to  the  varying  educa- 
tional needs  of  the  young  people  which  it  re- 
ceives. If  the  plan  of  the  six  years'  high 
school  means  that  subjects  similar  to  those 
now  found  in  the  high  school  should  monop- 
olize the  program  and  that  teaching  would  be 
mainly  in  the  hands  of  young,  untrained  col- 
lege graduates,  then  there  exist  reasons  for 
hoping  that  another  approach  analogous  to 


146  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

that  described  above  be  devised  whereby  flexi- 
bility in  upper-grade  work  may  be  obtained. 

9.  In  a  program  of  the  kind  here  discussed, 
what  place  should  be  made  for  retarded  chil- 
dren from  twelve  to  fourteen  years  of  age  ? 

Obviously,  these  should  not  be  permitted  to 
remain  in  the  elementary  schools  organized 
for  children  of  the  first  six  grades.  They 
should  be  brought  to  the  same  centers  as  pu- 
pils of  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  and 
should  there  be  organized  into  special  classes, 
perhaps  sharing  in  some  of  the  departmental 
work  of  the  regularly  promoted  pupils.  For 
example,  the  practical  arts  work  adapted  to 
seventh  and  eighth  grade  pupils,  as  described 
above,  might  in  large  degree  be  suitable  for 
retarded  pupils,  whereas  special  departmental 
classes  in  English,  arithmetic,  and  the  like 
might  be  arranged. 

10.  Would  there  not  be  a  tendency  on  the 
part  of  all  pupils  to  take  the  foreign  language 
or  literary  program  described  above,  in  view  of 
the  probability  that  pupils  having  superior  home 
advantages  would  perhaps  seek  such  a  course  ? 


PROGRAMS  OF  STUDY  147 

In  some  cases  this  result  would  probably 
follow.  Much  would  depend  upon  the  spirit 
of  those  in  charge  of  the  various  programs. 
Experience  already  shows  that  the  right  kind 
of  a  course  in  practical  arts  would  prove  a 
very  satisfactory  alternative  to  a  modern  lan- 
guage course.  No  one  of  the  above  programs 
of  study  should,  of  course,  exclude  from  the 
opportunities  for  higher  education,  but  also 
it  should  be  obvious  that  the  pursuit  of  one 
of  them,  to  the  exclusion  of  any  other,  would 
entail  advantages  and  disadvantages  with  re- 
spect to  the  higher  schools.  A  pupil  taking 
the  modern  language  and  algebra  program  in 
the  higher  grades  of  the  elementary  school 
should  obviously  gain  a  year  in  the  general 
high  school ;  whereas,  another  pupil  taking 
the  commercial  program,  described  above, 
would  possess  advantages  in  taking  up  high 
school  commercial  work.  A  pupil  with  the 
foreign  language  would  necessarily  require 
more  time  in  the  commercial  program  and  the 
pupil  having  the  commercial  courses  in  the 
elementary  school  would  probably  require  ad- 


148          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

ditional  time  in  the  general  high  school  pro- 
gram. 

11.  In  the  case  of  a  large  number  of  chil- 
dren from  fourteen  to  sixteen  years  of  age 
what  reorganization  of  the  currently  accepted 
program  of  study  is  desirable  ? 

In  several  States,  it  is  now  an  accepted  pol- 
icy to  provide  vocational  schools  for  young 
people  who  have  passed  the  period  of  compul- 
sory education,  usually  at  the  age  of  fourteen. 
We  are  justified  in  expecting  this  movement 
for  vocational  schools  to  develop  rapidly.  But 
in  the  estimation  of  the  writer,  an  equally 
great  educational  need  in  secondary  education 
at  the  present  time  is  the  organization  of  pro- 
grams of  liberal  secondary  education,  adapted 
to  young  people  who  will  probably  leave 
school  at  or  about  the  age  of  sixteen.  To  a 
great  extent,  the  doors  of  industry  and  of  the 
commercial  callings  are  closing  to  youths 
under  sixteen.  Parents  are  increasingly  solicit- 
ous that  their  children  shall  have  the  advan- 
tages of  at  least  two  years  of  education  beyond 
the  elementary  school.  The  years  from  four- 


PROGRAMS  OF  STUDY  149 

teen  to  sixteen  in  the  life  of  the  average  young 
person  offer  great  opportunities  for  a  vital, 
liberal  education  as  this  affects  both  personal 
culture  and  civic  efficiency. 

The  secondary  school  curriculum  with  its 
various  programs  of  study  now  offers  little  of 
educational  value  to  the  pupil  who  can  remain 
at  most  but  two  years.  As  indicated  above, 
the  subjects  are  generally  preparatory  to  more 
advanced  study  of  a  general  or  vocational  na- 
ture. Methods  of  teaching  are  formal  and  ill- 
adapted  to  the  development  of  the  tastes,  in- 
terests, and  insights  which  should  characterize 
liberal  education.  This  condition  obtains  even 
in  the  quasi-vocational  courses,  such  as  those 
designed  to  lead  to  the  commercial  callings, 
and  to  industrial  arts  pursuits.  In  the  so-called 
commercial  program  of  the  typical  high  school, 
the  subjects  of  study  for  the  first  two  years 
are  commonly  vocational  only  to  a  slight  ex- 
tent, being  organized  and  presented  rather 
with  a  view  to  the  studies  which  are  to  be  pur- 
sued during  the  third  and  fourth  years  of  the 
course.  The  number  of  students  "remaining 


150          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

throughout  the  course  is,  as  is  well  known, 
small. 

A  complete  scheme  of  secondary  education 
should  include  not  only  one  or  more  of  the 
four-year  programs  as  now  commonly  found, 
but  also,  in  the  estimation  of  the  writer,  flex- 
ible two-year  programs  of  study,  all  containing 
English  literature,  English  expression,  general 
science,  social  science,  and  an  option  from  one 
of  the  four  great  fields  of  practical  arts  study 
— namely,  agriculture,  industrial  arts,  house- 
hold arts,  and  commerce. 

What  are  the  principal  objections  that  may 
be  urged  against  the  administrative  changes 
herein  suggested? 

These  may  be  discussed  under  three 
heads : — 

(1)  The  proposed  scheme,  it  will  be  claimed, 
is  more  expensive  and  involves  administrative 
difficulties.  To  a  degree  these  objections  are 
well  founded.  The  execution  of  the  plan  will 
perhaps  involve  a  considerable  increase  in 
departmental  teaching.  Teachers  under  this 


PROGRAMS  OF  STUDY  151 

arrangement  should  of  necessity  command  bet- 
ter salaries.  As  the  work  is  differentiated,  a 
certain  amount  of  it  should  be  placed  in  charge 
of  men  teachers  only.  In  towns  and  cities  of 
large  area,  it  may  prove  necessary  to  give  fi- 
nancial assistance  for  transportation  to  pupils 
attending  the  central  schools,  although  this  is 
not  commonly  done  in  connection  with  high 
schools.  Flexible  programs  of  study  always 
require  considerable  effort  on  the  part  of 
superintendents  and  other  administrators  in 
making  necessary  adjustments.  Nevertheless, 
it  is  believed  that  both  from  the  standpoint  of 
expense  and  from  the  standpoint  of  adminis- 
trative difficulty,  the  changes  proposed  will 
be  amply  justified  in  the  greater  educational 
return  which  they  make  possible. 

(2)  It  will  be  charged  that  the  proposed 
plan  is  undemocratic  and  that  it  looks  to  a 
relatively  early  segregation  of  different  groups 
of  children.  It  should  be  recognized  that  cer- 
tain faults  common  in  European  secondary 
education  are  entirely  absent  from  the  plan. 
In  the  first  place,  no  fees  are  charged  to 


152          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

pupils.  Hence  all  of  the  courses  are  equally 
accessible.  Again,  the  only  qualification  to  be 
required  for  entrance  to  any  course  is  the 
ability  to  carry  the  work  of  that  course.  There 
is  no  essential  reason  why  children  of  poor 
people  should  not  take  the  longer  programs, 
if  their  parents  so  desire.  In  the  third  place, 
it  is  assumed  that  the  fullest  possible  infor- 
mation will  be  given  to  parents  and  others  in 
an  advisory  relation  to  children  with  a  view  to 
assisting  them  in  making  choices  of  appro- 
priate programs  of  study.  Finally,  in  all  pro- 
grams proposed,  certain  subjects  are  presumed 
to  be  taught  in  common  and  to  all  pupils. 
There  might  be  good  reasons  for  organizing 
the  classes  in  such  a  way  that  pupils  from  all 
divisions  of  a  given  school  should  be  mingled 
in  groups  wherein  the  subjects  common  to  all 
programs  are  taught.  It  is  difficult  to  see  how 
the  operation  of  the  proposed  plan  will  in  any 
way  involve  an  undemocratic  segregation  of 
pupils  according  to  class. 

(3)  It  will  be  claimed  that  some  of  the  pro- 
grams involve  over-emphasis  on  the  vocational 


PROGRAMS  OF  STUDY  163 

aspects  of  the  curriculum.  It  will  be  observed, 
of  course,  that  none  of  the  differentiated  pro- 
grams in  the  elementary  school  or  in  the  gen- 
eral high  school  are  intended  to  be  controlled 
by  the  purpose  of  fitting  for  vocations.  Vari- 
ous branches  of  the  practical  arts  are  intro- 
duced primarily  because  of  their  administra- 
tive worth  in  promoting  educational  interests 
and  in  giving  the  background  of  reality  for 
the  more  abstract  studies.  It  is  true  that  prac- 
tical arts  work,  as  given,  should  operate  in 
such  a  way  as  to  further  the  development  of 
vocational  ideals  and  should  assist  the  pupil 
in  finding  the  lines  of  his  probable  vocational 
strength.  Nevertheless,  all  programs  of  study 
are  only  incidentally  vocational.  Practical  arts 
subjects  must  be  tested  primarily  by  their 
capacity  to  contribute  to  liberal  rather  than 
to  vocational  education. 


VII 

THE  OPPORTUNITY  OF  THE  SMALL  HIGH 
SCHOOL 

DR.  THORNDIKE  has  shown,1  on  the  basis 
of  the  figures  contained  in  the  annual  reports 
of  the  National  Bureau  of  Education,  that,  in 
the  United  States,  public  secondary  schools 
which  have  only  one  or  two  teachers  are  in 
excess  of  all  the  others ;  while  in  high  schools 
having  fewer  than  four  teachers  are  enrolled 
over  one  third  of  all  the  secondary  school 
pupils  of  the  country.  In  Massachusetts,  ap- 
proximately forty  per  cent  of  the  high  schools 
have  fewer  than  four  teachers. 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  colleges,  and  also 
from  that  of  many  speakers  at  our  larger  edu- 
cational gatherings,  these  small  high  schools 
may  seem  to  be  rather  poor,  understaffed,  and 
generally  ineffective  institutions ;  but,  looked 
at  as  the  principal  cultural  agencies  in  some- 

1  Educational  Review,  vol.  xxxm,  p.  245. 


THE  SMALL  HIGH  SCHOOL  155 

what  sparsely  settled  regions,  usually  agricul- 
tural, where  a  considerable  percentage  of  high- 
grade  men  and  women  are  born  and  reared, 
they  assume  a  large  importance. 

These  schools  are  rarely  without  a  few 
pupils  preparing  for  college.  The  teachers  are 
usually  recent  college  graduates,  as  yet  un- 
able to  interpret  education  except  in  terms  of 
college  courses  still  fresh  in  memory.  The 
college,  through  its  entrance  requirements, 
indicates  detailed  and  definite  standards  to  be 
met.  Hence,  quite  naturally,  the  work  of  the 
small,  undermanned  secondary  school  is  cus- 
tomarily one  long  struggle  to  bring  a  limited 
number  of  boys  and  girls  to  the  point  of  get- 
ting into  college  with  some  degree  of  credit. 
The  test  thus  imposed  on  the  faculty  of  the 
school  is  concrete  and  easily  comprehended 
by  the  community.  Teachers  are  judged  by 
the  success  of  their  pupils  in  meeting  the  re- 
quirements of  higher  institutions.  None  of 
the  other  standards  and  ideals  of  secondary 
education,  so  often  discussed  in  general,  and 
so  seldom  in  specific,  terms  at  educational  and 


156          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

kindred  gatherings,  have  much  weight  with 
the  small  high  school.  Its  teachers  are  of 
sheer  necessity  followers,  not  originators ;  and 
they  have  their  hands  full  in  seeking  to  meet 
the  very  specifically  formulated  requirements 
imposed  by  the  colleges. 

Thus  restricted  in  its  scope,  it  is  undoubt- 
edly true  that  the  small  high  school  has 
largely  failed  to  serve  as  effectively  as  is 
ideally  possible  the  local  community  needs 
as  represented  in  that  large  majority  of  its 
pupils,  for  whom  a  higher  education  is  out  of 
the  question.  Naturally,  high  school  teachers, 
as  well  as  college  critics  and  examiners,  do 
not  admit  this.  Somewhere  in  the  past  origi- 
nated the  belief  that  for  any  and  all  persons 
certain  abstract  studies,  such  as  algebra,  Latin, 
ancient  history,  physics,  and  the  like,  possess 
an  exceptional  value  in  unfolding  the  powers 
of  the  mind  and  in  developing  or  imparting 
that  elusive  quality  called  culture ;  on  this 
belief  the  accepted  curriculum  rests.  These 
studies  play  an  important  part,  of  course,  as 
tools  in  higher  education  as  usually  organ- 


THE  SMALL  HIGH  SCHOOL  157 

ized ;  but  that,  in  the  shape  which  they  ordi- 
narily take  when  presented  as  means  of  col- 
lege preparation,  they  should  be  assumed  to 
have  other  kinds  of  educational  utility,  is  one 
of  the  mysteries  of  contemporary  educational 
thinking.  Probably  an  explanation  is  to  be 
found  in  the  disposition  of  many  persons  to 
reason  according  to  the  principle  of  post  hoc, 
ergo  propter  hoc.  Young  people  who  have 
had  these  studies  succeed  better,  as  a  rule, 
in  the  world  than  those  who  have  not,  whether 
judged  by  standards  of  material  success  or  of 
cultural  development.  But  in  fact  the  pupils 
who  pass  well  in  a  secondary  school  program 
of  abstract  studies  are  ordinarily  a  picked  lot, 
in  respect  to  both  inheritance  and  environ- 
ment. They  are  those  for  whom  culture  and 
prosperity  are,  in  a  degree  at  least,  inevitable, 
no  matter  what  the  school  program  may  be. 
The  conviction,  however,  is  slowly  spreading 
that  the  traditional  program  of  the  small  high 
school  is,  for  those  who  do  not  reach  college, 
a  relatively  futile  affair  when  viewed  from  the 
standpoint  of  any  one  of  the  three  possible 


158          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

aims  of  secondary  education,  namely,  voca- 
tional efficiency,  civic  capacity,  and  personal 
culture.  There  is  a  growing  demand,  often 
inarticulate,  in  communities  supporting  such 
schools,  but  finding  more  definite  expression 
in  circles  where  these  problems  can  be  sys- 
tematically studied,  that  the  artificial  restric- 
tions imposed  on  general  secondary  education 
be  relaxed,  and  that  such  education  be  meas- 
urably readjusted  so  as  to  serve  more  accept- 
ably the  actual  needs  of  the  community. 

The  response  to  this  demand  is,  even  now, 
partially  felt.  At  first  hesitatingly,  then  whole- 
heartedly, important  institutions  of  higher 
education  have  modified  their  standards.  They 
do  not  aim  to  lower  their  requirements,  as 
expressed  in  the  general  ability  of  entrants  to 
do  good  college  work ;  but  they  manifest  a 
wholesome  disposition  to  let  the  high  schools 
do  their  proper  work  in  their  own  way  and  to 
accept  the  results,  provided  only  the  gradu- 
ates of  these  schools  will  in  college  "  make 
good  "  by  their  ability  to  do  serious  and  effec- 
tive higher  study.  We  may  now  hope  that  the 


THE  SMALL  HIGH  SCHOOL  169 

time  is  forever  past  when  colleges  could  harass 
secondary  schools  by  their  capricious  insist- 
ence on  special  topics,  texts,  or  time-tables  in 
algebra,  French,  chemistry,  and  other  tradi- 
tional subjects.  A  period  during  which  the 
colleges  nursed  the  high  schools  was  doubtless 
necessary;  but  apron  strings  have  been  cut, 
and  our  great  institutions  of  higher  learning 
are  opening  a  new  era  by  reposing  increased 
confidence  in  the  management  of  secondary 
schools. 

As  a  consequence  a  heavy  responsibility 
now  devolves  upon  the  public  high  school.  It 
must  define  its  true  aims  —  a  thing  it  has  never 
done — and  must  work  out  a  pedagogy  of 
means  and  methods,  towards  which  general 
subject  a  not  uncommon  attitude  even  yet  is 
that  of  the  farmer  who,  after  carefully  inspect- 
ing and  feeling  of  the  dromedary  in  the  circus, 
muttered,  "  There  ain't  no  such  animal." 
Those  responsible  for  the  administration  of  the 
small  high  school  must  needs  give  especial 
attention  to  a  determination  of  what  is  meant 
by  community  needs,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 


160          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

educational  possibilities  of  different  groups  of 
children  of  secondary  school  age,  on  the  other. 
The  present  is  an  era  of  opportunity  for  the 
small  high  school.  Let  it  recognize  its  neces- 
sary limitations;  let  it  explore  its  possible  field; 
let  it  undertake  to  realize  its  unquestionably 
great  possibilities. 

For  the  sake  of  calling  forth  discussion, 
and  as  a  means  of  indicating  his  own  growing 
convictions,  the  writer  wishes  to  support  the 
following  theses  relative  to  an  effective  func- 
tioning of  the  small  high  school.  These  theses 
are  not  designed  to  serve  as  a  basis  of  plans 
and  programs  of  action  for  the  present,  but 
as  fragmentary  contributions  towards  a  theory 
of  secondary  education,  which  may  eventually 
become  the  source  of  such  plans  and  programs. 

1.  The  small  high  school  must  remain  pri- 
marily a  school  of  liberal,  as  contrasted  with 
vocational,  education.  Effective  vocational 
training  in  any  field  is  practicable  only  with 
specially  prepared  teachers,  special  equipment, 
and  specially  arranged  conditions.  Attempts 


THE  SMALL  HIGH  SCHOOL  161 

at  genuine  vocational  education  in  the  small 
high  school,  as  commonly  organized,  whether 
in  agricultural,  industrial,  commercial,  or 
household  arts  subjects,  are  foredoomed  to 
failure  unless  carried  on  in  fully  specialized 
departments.  Otherwise  the  so-called  voca- 
tional training  which  results  is  likely  to  be  a 
sham  and  an  imposition. 

2.  On  the  other  hand,  every  small  high 
school  should  maintain  work  in  one  or  more 
lines  of  practical  arts,  but  avowedly  with  ref- 
erence to  the  possible  contributions  of  the 
subject  to  the  valid  ends  of  liberal  or  general 
education.  Manual  training,  household  arts, 
agriculture,  and  such  commercial  studies  as 
typewriting  and  elementary  bookkeeping  can 
be  made  valuable  factors  in  liberal  education  ; 
and  they  will  also  make  incidental  contribu- 
tions to  vocational  ideals.  But  it  is  important 
that  neither  the  community  nor  the  pupil  be 
deceived  into  thinking  of  any  of  these  sub- 
jects, when  pursued  a  few  hours  each  week, 
as  developing  genuine  vocational  skill  and 
capacity. 


162          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

3.  The  small  high  school  must  recognize 
that  preparation  for  college  is,  for  a  small  but 
important  minority  of  its  pupils,  a  necessary 
and  valuable  function;  but  it  must  equally 
recognize  that  for  a  majority  of  its  pupils  prep- 
aration for  the  realities  of  the  cultural  and 
civic  life  of  the  local  community  is  a  supremely 
important  purpose.  It  must  learn  in  addition 
that,  even  in  view  of  the  greatly  modernized 
college  admission  requirements  now  being  de- 
veloped, the  two  aims  are  not  to  be  realized 
through  the  same  means  and  methods.  In  the 
high  school  the  future  college  student  should 
learn  the  use  of  certain  tools  which  for  the 
boy  not  going  to  college  will  be  needless. 

4.  The  small  high  school  must  especially 
learn  to  serve,  and  in   growing  measure  as 
standards  of  living  improve,  the  needs  of  a 
very  large  class  of  boys  and  girls  hardly  yet 
recognized  in  American  secondary  education  — 
those,  namely,  who  will,  and  probably  should, 
leave  school  at  or  near  the  age  of  sixteen,  the 
age  at  which,  through  all  the  periods  of  civi- 
lization, the  vast  majority  of  young  people 


THE  SMALL  HIGH  SCHOOL  163 

have  begun  serious  participation  in  the  voca- 
tional occupations  of  life. 

5.  The  small  high  school,  and  it  is  to  be 
hoped  the  large  also,  must  learn  that  in  the 
liberal  education  of  young  persons  two  quite 
different  methods  of  approach  are  required  as 
between  different  subjects,  and  often  between 
unlike  phases  of  the  same  subject.  Naturally, 
the  provinces  for  the  two  types  of  methods 
shade  into  each  other  and  sharp  distinctions 
are  undesirable,  even  though  for  purposes  of 
description  they  must  be  temporarily  drawn. 

The  first  type  embraces  those  methods  of 
teaching,  the  largest  outcome  of  which  is 
appreciation.  The  satisfaction  of  natural  or 
induced  curiosity,  the  nurture  of  the  native 
instincts  towards  unforced  growth  in  feeling 
and  intelligence  —  these  purposes  should  con- 
trol in  this  phase  of  instruction.  A  child  hears 
a  story  or  song,  reads  a  book  for  pleasure, 
makes  an  excursion  with  a  friend,  attends  a 
good  play  or  moving-picture  show,  visits  a 
picture  gallery,  listens  to  an  illustrated  lecture 
on  a  scientific  subject :  the  net  results  of  these 


164          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

experiences  and  contacts  are  new  accessions  of 
resources  of  intellect  and  feeling,  with  perhaps 
little  gain,  relatively,  in  ability  to  organize, 
express,  and  apply  the  knowledge  and  senti- 
ment thus  developed.  For  lack  of  a  better 
term,  we  may  call  the  educational  ends  and 
methods  here  illustrated  those  of  appreciation. 
The  second  aspect  of  method  appears  when 
the  definite  purpose  of  teaching  is  the  devel- 
opment of  power  towards  execution  or  expres- 
sion of  some  sort.  The  study  of  a  foreign 
language  should  result  in  ability  to  use  it ;  of 
mathematics  and  science  in  advanced  stages, 
in  the  ability  to  organize  and  apply  to  further 
pursuits  the  knowledge  thus  obtained.  Any 
extensive  development  of  cultural  or  civic  (to 
say  nothing  of  vocational)  power  requires  the 
strenuous  and  purposeful  mastery  of  what  may 
be  called  intellectual  tools,  methods,  and  ma- 
terials. This  mastery  can  be  achieved,  as  a 
rule,  only  when  the  learner  is  in  a  willing  or 
cooperative  attitude.  The  high  school  of  to- 
day, by  its  methods,  seems,  in  all  subjects,  to 
aim  mainly  at  power  in  execution  or  applica- 


THE  SMALL  HIGH  SCHOOL  165 

tion,  but  its  methods  are  as  yet  not  consciously 
pedagogical.  The  result  is  that  it  finds  in  its 
pupils  an  absence  of  interest  and  an  indispo- 
sition towards  self-help. 

Of  the  two  methods  of  learning  here  con- 
trasted, the  first  deliberately  invokes  and  sus- 
tains the  relatively  spontaneous  learning  capac- 
ities, and  organizes  means  and  methods  towards 
that  end;  while  the  second  utilizes  processes  of 
learning  that  are  relatively  artificial.  The 
average  textbook  in  science  presupposes  the 
second  rather  than  the  first  method.  In  fact, 
but  a  small  part  of  high  school  education,  as 
organized,  is  directed  to  what  is  here  called 
learning  for  appreciation.  The  unorganized 
activities  of  English  and  American  secondary 
schools  are,  on  the  other  hand,  full  of  such 
spontaneous  elements,  notwithstanding  that 
such  activities  as  these  are  often  the  reverse  of 
uplifting.  A  very  real  pedagogic  difficulty  in 
organized  secondary  education  yet  exists  in  the 
imperfect  adjustment,  or  in  the  lack  of  adjust- 
ment, of  the  two  kinds  of  training. 

The  writer  believes  that  in,  at  least,  the 


166          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

introductory  stages  of  literature,  general  sci- 
ence, social  science,  and  practical  arts,  when 
these  subjects  are  designed  for  students  likely 
to  leave  school  early,  the  controlling  end 
should  be  deep  and  varied  appreciation ; 
whereas  in  vocational  subjects,  in  English 
expression,  and  in  the  later  stages  of  science 
and  mathematics,  the  controlling  purpose 
should  be  power  in  application,  expression, 
and  execution.  Until  the  distinction  of  method 
here  suggested  is  developed,  it  seems  unlikely 
that  the  small  high  school  can  do  much  for 
true  culture  and  social  development  as  ends  of 
secondary  education.  It  should  not  be  forgot- 
ten that  a  large  part  of  what  we  vaguely  call 
culture  springs  from  the  first  method,  and, 
perhaps,  from  it  only,  but  only  when  interest 
and  self-active  effort  are  enlisted. 

6.  The  small  high  school  must  recognize 
that  with  respect  to  the  means  and  methods  of 
stimulating  interest  and  appreciation  it  has  a 
relatively  wide  field,  whereas  in  the  matter  of 
subjects  and  phases  of  subjects  calling  for 
power  in  application  and  execution  its  limita- 


THE  SMALL  HIGH  SCHOOL  167 

tions  are  pronounced  and  besetting.  Lectures, 
pictures,  musical  recitals,  moving-picture  pres- 
entations, good  libraries,  excursions,  partici- 
pation in  civic  activities,  interpretations  of 
science  by  talks  and  readings,  activity  in  some 
phase  of  practical  arts  by  means  of  participa- 
tion on  the  amateur's  level  —  all  these  may 
prove  rich  and  easily  accessible  sources  of  cul- 
ture. But  mastery  of  a  foreign  language,  sys- 
tematic study  of  literary  selections,  drill  in 
the  arts  of  vernacular  expression,  laboratory 
exercise  in  science  work,  and  productive  effort 
in  some  field  of  the  practical  arts  all  require 
specialization  of  teaching  power  such  as  the 
small  high  school  can  only  to  a  limited  degree 
afford.  In  power-producing  studies,  as  con- 
trasted with  appreciation-favoring  opportuni- 
ties, the  small  high  school  must  restrict  its 
field  to  what  it  can  do  well. 

What,  then  is  the  minimum  curriculum  a 
small  high  school  can  have  and  fairly  meet 
the  above  ends  ?  The  writer  believes  that  the 
following  most  nearly  serves  these  purposes :  — 


168          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 


FIRST   AND    SECOND    YEARS 

Non-College-Preparatory  College-Preparatory 

1.  English  literature  6.  English  literature  (1) 

2.  English  language  7.  English  language  (2) 

3.  General  science  8.  Selected  from  (3-5) 

4.  Social  science  9.  Mathematics 

5.  Practical  arts  10.  Foreign  language 


THIRD  AND  FOURTH  YEARS 

Selected  from  16'  En£lisn  literature 

.  college-preparatory  17'  EnSlish  ^nguage 

courses  (16-20)  18'  °?ience 

19.  Foreign  language 


11. 

12. 
13. 
14. 
15.  Practical  arts  20.  History 

This  proposed  curriculum  for  the  small  high 
school  presents  two  programs  of  study.  The 
first  is  designed  for  youths  not  seeking  col- 
lege preparation,  but  intending  to  terminate 
their  general  education  during  or  at  the  close 
of  the  hiarh  school  course ;  while  the  second 

O  ' 

is  planned  to  provide  adequate  preparation 
for  college  work. 

But  a  further  distinction  is  apparent.  The 
first  two  years'  work  of  the  high  school  is 
organized  primarily  to  minister  to  the  needs 
of  those  who  will  probably  end  their  general 
education  at  or  about  sixteen,  but  on  the 


THE  SMALL  HIGH  SCHOOL  169 

assumption  that  a  portion  of  such  work  will 
also  prove  valuable  for  those  who  are  prob- 
ably destined  for  college.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  last  two  years  of  the  curriculum  give 
prominence  to  considerations  of  college  prep- 
aration, with  the  understanding  that  for  the 
student  who  continues  in  school  without  in- 
tending to  enter  college  the  college  prepara- 
tory studies,  while  perhaps  not  the  most  valu- 
able, are  in  the  small  high  school  the  most 
effective  provision  that  can  be  made.  An 
analysis  of  the  curriculum  into  its  constituent 
elements  will  make  this  general  distinction 
clearer.  It  will  be  understood  that  the  dog- 
matic and  direct  form  of  presentation  is  ren- 
dered necessary  by  the  space  limitations  of 
the  present  paper. 

1.  The  two-year  course  in  English  litera- 
ture in  both  programs  should  be,  in  content 
and  method  of  presentation,  such  as  intelli- 
gent persons,  solicitous,  on  the  one  hand,  as 
to  the  establishment  of  good  tastes  and  stand- 
ards of  judgment  in  general  reading,  and  on, 
the  other,  acquainted  with  the  strong  inter- 


170          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

ests  and  the  general  learning  capacities  of 
young  adolescents,  would  design  for  those 
youths  who  will  probably  terminate  their  lib- 
eral school  education  at  or  about  sixteen  years 
of  age. 

We  do  not  yet  know  in  detail  what  such  a 
course  should  contain,  nor  have  we  much 
available  knowledge  of  the  methods  that  would 
be  appropriate  in  its  presentation.  In  this 
matter,  our  college  professors  of  English  can 
as  yet,  because  of  their  scholastic  associations, 
give  us  but  little  help ;  and  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  even  high  school  teachers  of  the  sub- 
ject, as  it  is  now  organized,  with  their  estab- 
lished prepossessions,  can  give  satisfactory 
guidance. 

It  may  well  be  doubted  whether  the  so- 
called  English  classics  should  figure  largely 
in  such  a  course.  It  would  appear  self-evident 
that  it  should  contribute  to  evident  elevation 
of  taste  in  the  reading  of  contemporary  liter- 
ary productions,  as  found  in  newspaper,  maga- 
zine, and  book  form.  It  would  appear  to  be 
folly  to  endeavor  to  secure,  at  large  expense 


THE  SMALL  HIGH  SCHOOL  171 

of  time  and  energy,  and  with  uncertain  re- 
sults, abiding  interests  in  fields  into  which 
the  large  majority  of  fairly  well-educated 
people  do  not  even  now  habitually  enter. 

Furthermore,  it  may  be  questioned  whether 
in  this  course  literature  should  be  at  all  closely 
correlated  with  the  study  of  oral  and  written 
expression  in  the  vernacular.  The  writer  be- 
lieves that  careful  study  would  show  that  in 
most  American  high  schools  to-day  the  inti- 
mate correlation  of  language  study  and  lit- 
erature, such  as  prevails  in  the  general  sub- 
ject called  English,  results  neither  in  literary 
appreciation  nor  in  powers  of  effective  expres- 
sion. The  two  purposes  require  for  their  attain- 
ment very  different  pedagogic  methods ;  and 
it  may  be  doubted  whether  the  same  teacher 
should,  as  is  usually  the  case  in  high  schools, 
teach  both  subjects.  At  any  rate,  in  English 
designed  solely  "for  life,"  literature  and  the 
arts  of  expression  should  receive  independent 
consideration. 

2.  In  contrast  with  the  study  of  literature, 
in  which  the  controlling  aim  should  be  appre- 


172          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

elation,  the  study  of  (English)  language  in  this 
program  should  be  designed  mainly  to  give 
power  in  the  arts  of  expression  in  English, 
and  on  a  level  appropriate  and  practicable  for 
that  large  majority  who  are  to  have  no  college 
training.  Here,  again,  few  if  any  precedents 
exist.  The  pedagogy  of  the  problem  has  not 
been  studied  because  the  problem  itself  has 
not  as  yet  been  clearly  differentiated  and 
formulated. 

3.  After  literature  and  expression  in  Eng- 
lish, no  subject  has  a  more  appropriate  place 
in  a  program  of  liberal  education  designed 
primarily  for  persons  destined  probably  to 
enter  upon  practical  life  at  sixteen  than  gen- 
eral science.  This  science  cannot  be  psycho- 
logy, or  botany,  or  zoology,  or  physiology,  or 
physics,  or  chemistry,  or  geology,  or  astro- 
nomy, or  geography,  but  should  consist  of 
large  units  or  topics  from  several  or  all  of 
those  subjects,  and  all  presented  from  the 
standpoint  of  appreciation  and  insight,  as 
contrasted  with  power  to  use.  Little  organized 
material  for  teaching  purposes  in  this  field  is 


THE  SMALL  HIGH  SCHOOL  173 

yet  available,  and  progress  will  be  slow  until 
there  is  developed  a  vital  pedagogy  of  second- 
ary school  teaching.  In  general,  the  science 
subjects  contemplated  should  aim  to  interpret 
the  significant  phases  of  the  material  envi- 
ronment of  the  youth,  so  far  as  his  capacity 
normally  permits;  and  this  process  should 
produce  large  appreciation,  permanent  inter- 
ests, and  a  measure  of  insight. 

4.  No  less  indispensable  to  the  liberal  edu- 
cation of  American  youth  than  general  science 
is  social  science,  meaning  thereby  that  appre- 
ciative understanding  of  the  social  environ- 
ment which  is  essential,  not  only  to  citizenship, 
but  to  effective  living.  For  this  subject  neither 
content  nor  method  is  yet  available.  A  limited 
amount  of  civics  is,  of  course,  found  in  Ameri- 
can high  schools.  Increasing  attention  has,  in 
recent  years,  been  given  to  history,  but  the  ad- 
vocates of  that  study  in  the  secondary  school 
have,  as  yet,  been  unable  to  show  us  how  it 
actually  "functions"  in  any  kind  of  civic  or 
social  efficiency.  Perhaps  it  is  not  intended  to 
do  so,  but  the  other  purposes,  whatever  they 


174          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

are,  should  be  defined  and  proved  valuable; 
otherwise  the  subject  is  in  danger  of  being 
relegated  to  the  museum  of  discarded  educa- 
tional machinery. 

But  whether  our  leaders  in  history  teaching 
will  have  it  so  or  not,  those  who  can  detach 
themselves  from  educational  traditions  and  who 
are  accustomed  to  face  the  facts  of  youth  and 
society  know  that  a  two-year  course  constructed 
of  suitable  units  from  civics,  economics,  ethics, 
and  other  constituents  of  social  science,  en- 
riched with  vital  and  pertinent  contributions 
from  history,  both  that  which  is  made  and 
that  which  is  to-day  making,  can  be  devised. 
They  know,  furthermore,  that  such  a  course, 
planned  for  youths  from  fourteen  to  sixteen, 
can  be  made  to  yield  valuable  contributions 
to  moral  and  civic  capacity,  as  well  as  to  pro- 
vide a  background  for  future  vocational  studies. 
Teachers  for  this  work  are  not  yet  avail- 
able ;  nor  are  manuals  and  textbooks ;  but 
given  the  right  conception  of  the  pedagogic 
need  and  method,  these  things  will  soon  fol- 
low. 


THE  SMALL  HIGH  SCHOOL  175 

5.  The  small  high  school  cannot  be  a  voca- 
tional school  in  any  true  sense  of  that  word, 
but  this  does  not  mean  that  it  shall  forego  all 
attempts  to  keep  its  boys  and  girls  in  contact 
with  the  practical  arts  by  which  men  and 
women  must  live  and  which  are  therefore,  like 
the  earth  beneath,  the  sky  above,  and  the  so- 
cial life  all  about,  among  the  great  realities  of 
lif  e.  That  is  no  liberal  education  which  ignores 
the  possibilities  that  adolescence  presents,  of 
an  illuminating  and  inspiring  contact  with 
those  realms  of  achievement  wherein  men  con- 
trol the  material  world  to  the  uses  of  humanity. 
In  this  general  subject,  contact  and  participa- 
tion on  the  amateur's  level  are  the  essential 
basal  elements  of  method. 

Under  practical  arts  we  may  recognize  four 
distinct  departments  —  namely,  agriculture, 
the  industries,  the  commercial  occupations,  and 
the  household  arts.  A  small  high  school  can, 
even  when  articulating  its  work  closely  with 
similar  work  in  the  upper  grades  of  the  ele- 
mentary school,  carry  but  one  or  two  of  these 
divisions.  In  a  rural  community  agricultural 


176          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

and  household  arts  training  might  well  com- 
prise all  the  practical  arts  work. 

The  controlling  aim  in  this  field  should  not 
be  direct  vocational  skill  or  even  knowledge 
designed  to  be  applied  in  specific  callings,  but 
rather  the  broad,  appreciative  insight  and  sym- 
pathetic contact  which  will  result  in  high 
standards  of  utilization  and  a  measure  of  vo- 
cational idealism.  Units  of  work,  each  lead- 
ing to  visible  and  serviceable  achievement, 
should  be  made  available  for  the  youthful  am- 
ateur's contact  with  human  vocations;  and 
these  should  constitute  ports  of  embarkation 
for  excursions  into  fields  of  related  art,  his- 
tory, economics,  science,  and  mathematics.  It 
will  be  observed  that  the  non-college-prepara- 
tory program  contains,  in  the  first  two  years, 
no  mathematics,  it  being  assumed  that  the 
needful  mathematical  practice  for  those  leav- 
ing school  at  sixteen  can  be  obtained  in  con- 
junction with  the  practical  arts  work. 

6-10.  During  the  first  two  years  of  the 
high  school  curriculum,  students  desiring  to 
prepare  for  college  should  take  mathematics 


THE  SMALL  HIGH  SCHOOL  177 

and  a  foreign  language ;  and  also  the  two 
English  branches  and  one  other  subject  from 
the  non-preparatory  program.  The  study  of 
mathematics  and  the  foreign  language  should 
be  designed  to  give  direct  power  in  the  use 
of  these  subjects  as  tools  in  college  work. 
The  teaching  should  be  intensive,  the  stand- 
ards high,  and,  in  mathematics,  at  least, 
acquaintance  with  the  methods  of  using  the 
subject  as  an  instrument  should  be  made 
concrete,  perhaps  along  lines  suggested  by 
the  Perry  movement  in  England.  But  to 
students  probably  not  going  to  college  it 
should  be  made  clear  that  high  school  math- 
ematics, as  the  subject  is  customarily  pre- 
sented, has  probably  little  educational  value  in 
comparison  with  other  subjects  which  should 
be  available. 

11-14.  During  the  third  and  fourth  years 
of  the  curriculum,  the  small  school  under 
consideration  can  well  afford  to  give  its  chief 
consideration  to  the  minority  (perhaps  by  this 
time  a  majority)  of  its  pupils  who  contemplate 
study  beyond  the  high  school.  But,  if  equip- 


178          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

ment  and  other  facilities  permit,  boys  and 
girls  not  seeking  college  preparation  should 
have  opportunity  to  supplement  a  program 
made  up  of  selected  studies  from  the  prepar- 
atory list,  with  practical  arts  courses.  Con- 
ceivably these  might  be  made  to  assume  the 
character  required  to  produce  vocational  effi- 
ciency, in  which,  by  a  part-time  or  other  ar- 
rangement, half  the  student's  time  might  be 
given  to  practical  and  productive  work  in  the 
calling  selected,  and  a  portion  of  the  remainder 
to  related  technical  studies.  But  this  could  be 
accomplished  only  through  special  teachers 
and  modified  internal  organization  of  the 
school. 

16-20.  Third  and  fourth  year  preparatory 
subjects  should,  in  content  and  method  of 
presentation,  follow  lines  adjudged  sound  by 
college  authorities  as  means  of  college  prepa- 
ration. The  foreign  language  begun  in  the  first 
year  is  here  continued  with  a  view  to  giving 
a  genuine  mastery  of  that  subject;  English, 
as  a  study  of  literature  and  of  the  arts  of  ex- 
pression, is  pursued  intensively;  while  science 


THE  SMALL  HIGH  SCHOOL  179 

and  history  are  also  so  taught  as  to  produce 
power  in  using  these  subjects  as  instrumen- 
talities. 

In  this  connection  attention  should  be  called 
to  the  preposterous  attempts  on  the  part  of 
small  high  schools  to  teach  two  or  more  foreign 
languages.  Seldom  have  such  schools  the 
means  of  teaching  one  at  all  adequately ;  but 
it  is  unbelievable  that  so  many  of  them  should 
palm  off  on  the  public  so-called  Latin,  French, 
and  German  teaching  which  is  not  even  a  fair 
imitation  of  language  teaching  according  to 
any  adequate  standard.  Let  the  small  high 
school  never  attempt  more  than  one  foreign 
language ;  let  it  teach  that  intensively  through 
four  years ;  let  it  permit  no  pupil  to  continue 
in  the  subject  who  has  not  real  capacity  for 
it;  and,  incidentally,  let  the  school  obtain  as  a 
teacher  of  this  subject  one  who  knows  some- 
thing about  it — if  a  modern  language,  one 
who  can  understand  and  use  it.  Americans 
are  hospitable  to  shams,  and  yield  to  self-delu- 
sion no  less  in  education  than  in  other  mat- 
ters; but  in  no  other  respect  are  we  more 


180          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

imposed  upon  than  in  the  high  school  teaching 
of  foreign  language. 

The  foregoing  hypothetical  organization  of 
a  high  school  curriculum  is  presented  with  a 
view  to  eliciting  discussion  and  constructive 
suggestion.  It  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  program 
of  action  for  the  present  time  —  it  contains 
too  many  features  which  are  yet  ill-defined 
and  in  need  of  experimental  demonstration. 
The  writer  hopes  that  within  the  next  few 
years  considerable  progress  will  be  made  in 
testing  particular  phases  of  this  and  similar 
plans.  Already,  indeed,  there  are  many  enter- 
prising and  careful  teachers  who  are  seeking 
to  reorganize  special  subjects.  General  science 
suited  to  the  first  and  second  high  school 
years  —  have  we  not  already  some  foreshadow- 
ings  of  possible  courses  in  this  field?  Here 
and  there  are  English  teachers  who  are  feeling 
their  way  towards  a  fuller  and  richer  utiliza- 
tion of  the  world's  store  of  reading-matter  as 
a  means  of  developing  genuine  culture  in  the 
case  of  youths  of  fifteen  or  sixteen  years  of 


THE  SMALL  HIGH  SCHOOL  181 

age.  Even  in  the  ill-defined  field  above  called 
social  science,  we  have  in  many  current  exam- 
ples of  the  teaching  of  civics,  local  economics, 
industrial  history,  and  ethics,  and  in  the  pur- 
poseful development  of  the  historic  sense,  and 
the  conscious  kindling  of  social  ideals,  instances 
which  show  what  may  eventually  be  done  in 
a  broad  program  of  the  wider  civic  or  social 
education. 

Can  the  small  high  school  carry  out  the 
proposed  program?  It  is  certainly  not  more 
pretentious  than  many  now  followed.  By  a 
proper  alternation  of  studies  by  years,  two 
teachers  should  be  able  to  present  all  the  sub- 
jects, although,  manifestly,  these  teachers  will 
carry  heavy  loads.  But  on  what  other  terms 
can  we  obtain  an  effective  secondary  education 
for  the  sparsely  settled  community?  There 
are  various  needs  to  be  met,  of  which  prepara- 
tion of  a  few  students  for  college  is  not  the 
most  important.  Let  the  small  high  school 
learn  to  define  and  meet  these  needs';  let  the 
makers  of  textbooks,  manuals,  and  programs 
of  secondary  education  realize  the  opportuni- 


182          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

ties  which  are  now  offered  to  develop  a  more 
effective  scheme  of  liberal  education  in  the 
thousands  of  small  schools  in  America ;  and 
let  educators  define  and  elaborate  the  purposes 
of  true  liberal  education.  The  problem  of  an 
efficient  secondary  education  even  in  the  small 
high  school  is  not  an  insoluble  one. 


VIII 

DEBATABLE  ISSUES  IN  VOCATIONAL 
EDUCATION 

EDUCATION  is  a  complex  and  difficult  sub- 
ject. Vocational  education  —  which  is  but  one 
of  several  kinds  of  education  —  is  itself  intri- 
cate and  presents  many  unlike  phases.  We 
have  now  passed  through  the  stage  of  propa- 
ganda in  vocational  education  and  we  may 
expect  that  henceforth  progress  in  its  theory 
and  practice  will  come  largely  as  we  disen- 
tangle elements  of  the  general  subject,  segre- 
gate particular  issues,  and  analyze  the  prob- 
lems into  their  component  factors.  Some  of 
the  problems  of  vocational  education  require 
no  further  debate  among  well-informed  and 
progressive  men.  But  there  are  other  issues 
which  still  need  close  study,  and  with  refer- 
ence to  which  marked  differences  of  opinion 
should  be  expected. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  principles  in 


184          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

regard  to  which  we  can  assume  that  intelli- 
gent persons  are  substantially  in  agreement, 
or  at  least  that  agreement  would  follow  an 
understanding  of  the  development  of  the  the- 
ory and  practice  of  vocational  education  in 
Germany,  Denmark,  France,  Scotland,  and 
America  during  the  last  dozen  years. 

1.  The  presence  in  any  society  of  a  rela- 
tively large  proportion  of  skillful  and  intelli- 
gent workers,  and  directors  of  these  workers, 
constitutes  a  national  asset;  and  any  country 
permitting  a  large  proportion  of  its  youth  to 
grow  to  maturity  untrained  as  regards  skill, 
unformed  as  regards  habits  of  industry,  and 
unintelligent  as  respects  economic  processes, 
is  thereby  impairing  the  quality  of  its  national 
endowment. 

2.  Economic  changes  and  the  advance  of 
scientific  knowledge  have  rendered  relatively 
ineffective  such  historic  non-school  agencies 
of  vocational  education  as  the  workshop  with 
its  apprenticeship  system,  the  farm,  and  the 
home.  The  average  youth  of  to-day  has,  on 
the  whole,  less  opportunity  to  learn  the  arts 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION  185 

of  industry  under  controlled  conditions  than 
had  the  youth  of  a  century  or  more  ago. 

3.  For  many  callings,  at  least,  vocational 
education  can  be  carried  on  in  specialized  in- 
stitutions or  schools  wherein  the  controlling 
object  is  to  produce  recognized  types  of  voca- 
tional efficiency. 

4.  It  is  in  no  way  inconsistent  with  accepted 
ideals  of  public  policy  that  the  State  should 
support  and  control  schools  for  vocational  ed- 
ucation; and  the  limits  to  such  support  and 
control  are  to  be  found  only  in  the  effective- 
ness of  the  work  which  such  specialized  insti- 
tutions can  be  made  to  do. 

5.  Vocational  education  under  school  con- 
ditions cannot  be  carried  on  by  the  methods 
and  agencies  that  have  become  familiar  in 
connection  with  general  or  academic  educa- 
tion. Vocational  education  requires  the  evo- 
lution of  means  and  methods  peculiar  to  itself, 
and,  to  a  degree  at  least,  quite  dissimilar  to 
those  found  in  general  education. 

6.  Effective  vocational  education  presents 
three  distinct  aspects,  namely,  practical  partic- 


186          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

ipation  in  productive  work ;  technical  studies 
related  to  the  productive  work;  and  general 
vocational  studies  designed  to  enhance  voca- 
tional intelligence  and  ideals.  For  many  call- 
ings and  for  various  grades  of  natural  ability 
the  right  conduct  of  vocational  education  re- 
quires that  practical  participation  in  produc- 
tion should  be  the  basis  upon  which  are  to  be 
built  technical  studies  and  the  related  general 
vocational  studies. 

7.  Little   can   be  done  effectively  in  the 
direction    of  "  generalized  vocational  educa- 
tion" or  education  by  a  series  of  exercises  de- 
signed to  prove  equally  adapted  to  prepara- 
tion for  a  variety  of  callings ;  hence,  general 
courses  in  drawing,  mathematics,  manual  train- 
ing, commercial  studies,  applied  science,  agri- 
culture, etc.,  however  much  they  may  seem  to 
imitate  the  procedures  of  a  true  vocational 
education,  are,  nevertheless,  usually  ineffective 
and  uneconomical  as  contributing  to  vocational 
efficiency. 

8.  The  principal  elements  of  vocational  ed- 
ucation can  only  be  imparted  by  persons  who 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION  187 

are  themselves  masters  of  the  craft  or  the  call- 
ing which  is  to  be  taught. 

9.  A  rightly  organized  and  effective  voca- 
tional education  makes  important  contributions 
to  mental  development,  to  the  establishment 
of  cultural  interests,  and  to  the  development 
of  civic  capacity.  These  are,  under  right  con- 
ditions of  teaching,  important  and  valuable 
by-products  of  vocational  education. 

The  general  acceptance  of  the  foregoing 
principles  serves  to  some  degree  to  define  the 
sphere  and  necessities  of  vocational  education. 
It  must  be  looked  upon  as  a  social  necessity 
in  proportion  as,  on  the  one  hand,  skill  and 
intelligence  on  the  part  of  the  worker  consti- 
tute both  individual  and  social  assets,  and  as, 
on  the  other,  historic  agencies  prove  unable 
to  meet  these  needs.  Vocational  education  in 
any  and  all  practical  forms  is  as  much  en- 
titled to  state  support  and  control  as  any  other 
form  of  education.  The  final  test  is  a  lofty 
social  expediency.  Vocational  education  and 
liberal  education  require  essentially  unlike 
methods,  and  it  may  be  expected  that,  as  a 


188          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

rule,  teachers  habituated  to  the  procedures 
of  the  one  will  prove  correspondingly  un- 
adapted  to  the  necessities  of  the  other.  Gen- 
eralized forms  of  so-called  vocational  education 
are  apt  to  be  as  ineffective  for  vocational  pur- 
poses as  would  be  the  procedures  of  liberal  edu- 
cation itself  for  this  purpose,  owing  to  their  lack 
of  adaptation  to  specific  ends  and  their  fail- 
ure to  "  function."  Hence,  in  the  promotion 
of  vocational  education  the  traditions  of  man- 
ual training,  drawing,  mathematics,  commer- 
cial teaching,  etc.,  must  be  taken  with  large 
reserve.  Vocational  education  must  find  its 
point  of  departure  primarily  in  the  various 
divisions  of  the  active  world  of  productive 
effort  —  the  occupations  which  men  and 
women  now  follow.  From  these  it  must  in  each 
case  work  back  and  so  elaborate  the  means 
and  methods  capable  of  producing  a  fairly 
high  and  enduring  type  of  vocational  effi- 
ciency. The  final  test  of  vocational  education 
is  the  degree  to  which  it  is  able  to  connect 
itself  with  right  standards  of  efficiency  in  the 
economic  world.  To  this  end  not  only  is  it 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION  189 

necessary  that  the  principal  teachers  should 
be  skilled  workers  themselves,  but  that  also 
every  separate  vocational  department  should 
hold  itself  close  to  advisers  who  are  employers 
and  employed  in  the  industry. 

Among  the  debatable  issues  of  vocational 
education  the  following  may  be  said  to  claim 
immediate  attention,  since  the  organization 
and  administration  of  vocational  schools  now 
being  founded  will  be  determined  largely  by 
the  answers  to  the  questions  raised. 

1.  To  what  extent  and  in  what  ways  can 
day  vocational  education  and  liberal  education 
be  carried  on  together  or  in  close  connection? 

As  long  as  boys  and  girls  are  under  the 
direction  of  the  State  in  public  schools  it  seems 
to  many  persons  desirable  that  some  portion 
of  their  education  should  be  directed  purpose- 
fully towards  the  end  of  culture  and  citizen- 
ship. The  authorities  in  charge  of  vocational 
schools,  therefore,  feel  constrained  to  set 
apart  a  certain  amount  of  time  for  purposes 
of  liberal  education. 


190          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

But  experience  is  demonstrating  that  in  the 
initial  stages  of  vocational  education  a  large 
degree  of  concentration  on  the  work  at  hand 
is  essential  on  the  part  of  the  learner.  A  va- 
riety of  school  habits  acquired  in  the  processes 
of  obtaining  a  general  education  are  antago- 
nistic to  a  workmanlike  attitude.  Efficiency  in 
any  vocation  requires  the  early  formation  of 
a  variety  of  special  habits  of  attention,  appli- 
cation, order,  thoroughness,  and  industry. 
These  are  by-products  and  can  be  developed 
only  under  conditions  approximately  those  of 
the  workshop.  For  the  beginner  in  the  shop, 
surroundings,  clothing,  hours  of  work,  rate 
of  output,  attention  to  detail,  and  salability  of 
product  should  be  those  found  in  the  world  of 
practical  affairs  where  young  persons  begin 
productive  work.  Any  other  standards  will 
lead  to  trifling,  to  dilettantism,  and  to  the 
formation  of  bad  habits. 

Hence  the  necessity  that  in  vocational 
schools  the  standards  of  vocational  education 
should  control  to  the  degree  found  essential 
to  the  development  of  vocational  efficiency. 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION  191 

Given  this  condition,  place  may  be  found  in 
the  program  for  some  general  education,  but 
the  latter  must  be  so  organized  as  not  to  in- 
terfere with  the  systematic  vocational  work. 
For  example,  studies  not  connected  with  the 
processes  of  vocational  training  should  prob- 
ably not  be  followed  during  the  active  work- 
ing day.  For  older  pupils  such  studies  might 
be  arranged  to  fall  outside  the  regular  work- 
ing hours,  in  the  afternoon  or  evening. 

In  an  industrial  school  boys  might  be  en- 
couraged to  form  reading  or  musical  clubs  for 
purposes  of  self-culture,  some  of  which  might 
meet  in  the  evening.  Classes  might  be  organ- 
ized for  the  teaching  of  literature  in  the  even- 
ing to  boys  engaged  in  vocational  schools 
during  the  day. 

It  is  doubtful  if  at  any  time  hours  should 
be  taken  out  of  the  working  day  for  system- 
atic training  in  general  subjects,  owing  to  the 
injurious  reaction  such  an  arrangement  would 
have  on  the  program  of  vocational  education. 
In  actual  life  the  vocation  must  claim  those 
hours  of  the  individual's  time  when  the  work- 


'192          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

ing  energies  are  at  their  maximum  strength. 
Leisure  hours  in  afternoon  and  evening,  and 
holidays,  can  be  devoted  to  cultural  purposes. 
The  program  of  the  vocational  school  should 
approximate  the  program  of  action  to  be 
called  for  by  the  working  world.  This  does 
not  mean,  of  course,  that  those  contributions 
which  a  well-developed  program  of  vocational 
education  can  make  to  civic  training  and  to 
the  development  of  culture  are  to  be  ignored 
or  neglected.  In  fact,  it  is  certain  that  a 
rightly  organized  system  of  vocational  educa- 
tion will  do  much,  as  was  previously  indicated, 
to  develop  culture  and  civic  capacity. 

2.  For  what  callings  is  systematic  vocational 
education  under  school  conditions  possible  ? 

It  has  long  been  obvious  that  vocational 
education  under  school  conditions  is  possible 
for  many  callings.  Medicine,  law,  theology, 
war,  engineering,  and  teaching  have  already 
committed  much  if  not  all  of  their  systema- 
tized vocational  training  to  schools.  In  agri- 
culture, some  of  the  commercial  callings,  and 
such  trades  as  plumbing,  bricklaying,  electric- 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION  193 

wiring,  sign-painting,  machine-shop  practice, 
cabinetmaking,  printing,  and  others,  many  ex- 
amples now  exist  to  show  that  vocational  edu- 
cation for  the  rank  and  file  of  workers,  to  the 
extent  of  from  one  half  to  two  thirds  of  the 
usual  apprenticeship  standard  of  accomplish- 
ment, is  entirely  feasible  in  schools. 

Whether  schools  can  be  organized,  the  train- 
ing of  which  will  prove  of  value,  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  individual  as  well  as  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  industry,  for  such  occu- 
pations as  those  of  the  sailor,  the  locomotive 
engineer,  the  salesman,  the  teamster,  the  mo- 
torman,  the  miner,  and  the  workers  in  our 
innumerable  specialized  manufacturing  indus- 
tries, is  still  a  question.  It  is  believed  by  some 
that  where  machinery  has  been  much  perfected 
and  where  there  is  a  progressive  tendency  to 
employ  highly  specialized  workers,  industrial 
efficiency  is  largely  a  question  of  organization 
rather  than  the  training  of  the  individual 
worker.  On  the  other  hand,  many  persons  be- 
lieve that  for  almost  any  type  of  productive 
work  a  large  amount  of  training  in  the  special 


194          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

habits  of  industry  and  application  as  well  as 
in  industrial  intelligence  is  possible  in  specially 
arranged  vocational  schools. 

Social  questions  are  here  involved  which  are 
as  yet  obscure.  For  example,  it  may  be  said  that 
present-day  manufacturing  industries  have 
adapted  themselves  to  an  existing  unskilled 
labor  supply,  but  we  have  no  evidence  yet  as 
to  what  those  same  industries  would  do  if  they 
could  employ  as  workers  persons  more  mature 
and  better  trained. 

Where  highly  specialized  industries  are  able 
to  take  advantage  of  the  labor  of  women  or 
youths,  evidence  is  still  lacking  of  the  extent 
to  which  such  employment  entails  a  social 
loss  in  the  shape  of  large  numbers  of  persons 
who  become  prematurely  unfitted  for  any  pro- 
ductive industry  and  become  perhaps  a  burden 
on  society.  Granting  that  an  organized  sys- 
tem of  vocational  education  might  not  result 
in  the  immediate  enhancement  of  vocational 
efficiency  in  the  specialized  employment  of  the 
kind  here  described,  it  is  yet  not  impossible 
that  it  would  result  in  a  permanent  enhance- 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION  195 

ment  of  ultimate  efficiency  to  such  a  degree 
as  more  than  to  justify  the  outlay  involved. 
Furthermore,  training  of  the  right  sort  might 
enable  young  workers  to  fit  for  other  and  more 
suitable  occupations. 

It  is  the  writer's  conviction  that  in  the 
course  of  time  we  shall  learn  that  for  highly 
specialized  occupations,  in  which  no  special 
training  seems  to  be  immediately  necessary, 
nevertheless,  vocational  training  along  the  lines 
of  some  productive  employment,  which  would 
suffice  to  establish  habits  of  industry,  applica- 
tion, and  an  attitude  of  industrial  intelligence, 
would  amply  justify  any  fair  outlay,  provided 
such  training  were  practical  and,  perhaps, 
opened  the  way  to  more  advanced  occupations. 

In  view  of  our  uncertainty  regarding  the 
extent  to  which  vocational  education  is  pos- 
sible along  lines  hitherto  undeveloped,  a  wise 
social  policy  should  open  the  way  for  experi- 
mental schools.  There  is  no  reason  why  a  vo- 
cational school,  on  a  small  scale,  should  not  be 
established  wherever  a  well-developed  industry 
seems  to  offer  openings  for  persons  of  training 


196          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

and  intelligence.  Probably,  as  will  hereafter 
be  shown,  the  most  effective  approach  may  be 
through  part-time  schemes  or  evening  classes, 
at  least  for  the  more  mature  young  workers 
who  can  thus,  on  the  one  hand,  have  the  ad- 
vantage of  shop  experience  corresponding  to 
that  which  prevailed  in  the  days  of  apprentice- 
ship, and,  on  the  other,  a  careful  training  in 
related  processes  and  subjects  to  the  end  that 
broader  vocational  efficiency  may  result. 

3.  What  can  be  done  for  purposes  of  voca- 
tional education  in  the  case  of  both  boys  and 
girls  from  fourteen  to  sixteen  years  of  age? 

It  has  become  an  established  feature  of 
American  public  school  policy  to  insist  on 
reserving  the  years  to  fourteen  for  purposes 
of  general  education.  On  the  other  hand,  in 
many  callings  wherein  young  persons  may  be 
expected  to  find  prolonged  employment,  en- 
trance before  the  age  of  sixteen  is  not  per- 
mitted, sometimes  owing  to  protective  legisla^ 
tion,  sometimes  to  custom,  and  sometimes 
to  the  proved  inability  of  the  worker  under 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION  197 

this  age  to  handle  the  required  work  effec- 
tively. 

Many  persons  still  believe  that  the  period 
from  fourteen  to  sixteen  will  ultimately  he  re- 
served for  the  purposes  of  a  further  general  or 
liberal  education.  This  anticipates  a  time  when 
the  economic  necessity  for  early  employment 
will  not  be  so  pressing  as  at  present.  Others 
again  are  of  the  opinion  that  during  those 
two  years  it  will  be  possible  to  find  some  forms 
of  vocational  education  which  will  lead  to  a 
considerable  degree  of  effective  preparation 
for  a  variety  of  callings. 

Contemporary  experience  seems  to  show 
that  for  large  numbers  of  boys  and  girls  it  is 
not  only  economically,  but  educationally,  im- 
portant that  shortly  after  the  age  of  fourteen 
they  should  find  themselves  in  an  atmosphere 
of  productive  work,  whether  that  be  in  a  voca- 
tional school  or  in  actual  employment,  and 
that  it  is  the  function  of  the  educational  sys- 
tem to  utilize  these  years  for  the  purposes  of 
laying  broad  foundations  for  future  vocational 
efficiency.  It  is  entirely  possible  that  experi- 


198  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

ence  will  show  that  the  most  profitable  voca- 
tional education  can  be  accomplished  by  taking 
the  boys  or  girls  during  these  years  and  giving 
them  quite  specific  training  for  some  definite 
occupation,  not  necessarily  with  the  expecta- 
tion that  such  occupation  will  invariably  be  fol- 
lowed, but  for  the  purpose  of  having  specific 
educational  goals  and  of  being  able  to  test  the 
efficiency  of  means  and  methods  followed. 
Persons  with  long  experience  in  industrial 
training,  or  in  the  pursuit  of  the  industries 
themselves,  often  assert  that  what  they  seek 
in  their  young  employees  is  not  so  much 
specific  skill  for  the  work  in  hand,  but  a  vari- 
ety of  industrial  habits,  such  as  orderliness, 
thrift,  industry,  appreciation  of  rate  of  work, 
and  other  similar  qualities.  These  cannot  be 
produced  by  means  of  the  manual  training 
courses  now  in  vogue  in  some  schools  or  by 
means  of  the  ordinary  procedures  of  general 
or  liberal  education.  It  seems  much  more 
probable  that  an  effective  program  of  voca- 
tional education  for  one  calling  may  lay  the 
foundation  for  these  habits  in  such  a  way  that 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION  199 

they  can  be  in  a  degree  transferred  to  another. 
We  may  have  parallel  examples  of  this  in  the 
fact  that  boys  trained  on  the  farm  are  so  often 
able  to  adapt  themselves  to  various  industrial 
callings  with  a  large  degree  of  success.  We 
find  further  evidence  in  the  fact  that  those 
young  persons  who  succeed  in  one  line  of  ap- 
prenticeship often  rise  to  a  considerable  degree 
of  success  in  another  calling.1 

It  now  seems  probable  that  for  purposes  of 
genuine  vocational  education  there  can  be  no 
effective  substitute  for  a  systematic  striving 
towards  vocational  efficiency  in  some  distinct 
lines  or  fields  of  work.  Only  hi  this  way  can 
active  motives  be  enlisted.  Only  in  this  way 
can  the  constructive  activities  of  youth  be 
taken  advantage  of  and  the  strong  desires 
of  most  young  persons  of  fifteen  years  and 
over  to  do  real  work  in  the  world  be  utilized. 
This  may  mean  that  we  shall  find  it  expedient 
to  take  youths  under  sixteen  and  give  them 

1  The  tentative  solution  here  proposed  has  been  seriously 
called  into  question  by  some  of  the  most  intelligent  leaders 
in  vocational  education.  The  writer  suggests  it,  however,  for 
further  discussion. 


200          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

opportunities  to  procure  vocational  training  in 
trades  or  vocations  that  prove  most  teachable 
under  school  conditions,  in  the  expectation 
that,  even  if  they  do  not  follow  the  activities 
for  which  they  have  been  trained,  they  will, 
nevertheless,  have  acquired  a  large  equipment 
of  habit  and  insight  which  are  of  advantage 
in  many  related  fields  of  possible  employment. 

It  is  probable  that  even  where  the  years  from 
fourteen  to  sixteen  can  be  given  to  general 
education  including  courses  in  the  practical 
arts,  the  latter  will,  in  their  successive  stages, 
approximate  the  conditions  of  productive 
industry  enriched  by  broad  appreciation  and 
made  intelligible  by  instruction  in  principle. 

Any  plan  for  vocational  education  of  young 
persons  must,  while  early  giving  attention  to 
practical  productive  work,  also  aim  to  produce 
the  ideals  and  wide  knowledge  which  relate  to 
vocations  for  which  preparation  is  being  made. 
Vocational  knowledge  and  intelligence,  how- 
ever, must  grow  out  of  the  conditions  of  the 
productive  work.  Therein  are  to  be  found  the 
sources  of  its  growth,  as  well  as  the  centers  of 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION  201 

evolution  for  vocational  intelligence,  adaptive- 
ness,  and  enthusiasm.  This  leads  to  a  consid- 
eration of  the  next  important  debatable  issue 
in  vocational  education. 

4.  How  far,  in  the  successive  stages  of  day 
vocational  education  in  schools,  shall  emphasis 
be  laid  on  productive  work,  and  how  far  on 
studies  and  practices,  which,  while  not  con- 
stituting productive  work,  are  nevertheless 
designed  to  enlarge  in  a  permanent  way  in- 
dustrial intelligence  and  lay  broad  foundations 
for  future  skill  ? 

It  will  be  recalled  that  one  of  the  battles 
that  had  to  be  won  with  reference  to  voca- 
tional education  was  the  establishment  of  the 
idea  that  a  considerable  part  of  this  training 
must  be  under  conditions  approximating  those 
in  the  industry.  Hence,  not  only  must  there 
be  advisory  committees  composed  of  persons 
actually  concerned  with  the  industry,  and 
teachers  who  themselves  have  been  trained  in 
the  industry,  but  also  other  conditions  ap- 
proximating those  of  commercial  establish- 
ments should  be  provided.  Shop  hours,  shop 


202          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

clothing,  and  provision  that  a  considerable 
part  of  the  product  shall  be  capable  of  being 
marketed  were  insisted  upon. 

In  the  earlier  stages  there  was  a  disposition 
to  regard  the  concrete  or  productive  work  as 
an  incident  in  the  process  of  vocational  edu- 
cation. Later  the  proposal  was  made  that  ap- 
proximately half  the  time  given  by  the  youth 
to  vocational  education  should  be  confined  to 
productive  practical  work,  the  remaining  half 
to  go  to  the  related  general  and  technical 
vocational  study.  Recent  experience  seems  to 
show,  however,  that  during  the  initial  stages 
of  industrial  training  far  more  prominence 
should  be  given  to  participation  in  productive 
work  than  has  hitherto  been  assumed.  In  fact, 
in  view  of  the  habits  and  attitude  brought  to 
the  vocational  schools  by  the  pupils  coming 
from  the  elementary  schools,  it  seems  desirable 
that  there  should  be  a  fairly  sharp  break  with 
the  methods  and  traditions  of  academic  train- 
ing. It  seems  desirable  that,  even  as  a  measure 
of  administration,  it  should  be  insisted  that 
during  the  boy's  first  few  months  of  attend- 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION  203 

ance  in  the  industrial  school  his  time  and 
energy  should  be  almost  wholly  absorbed  in 
mastering  the  elementary  conditions  of  pro- 
ductive work.  Hence,  it  seems  desirable  that 
he  should  spend  perhaps  the  full  working  day 
in  the  workshop  under  shop  conditions ;  that 
mathematics,  drawing,  and  such  other  subjects 
as  he  should  employ  in  connection  with  the 
productive  work  should  be  taken  incidentally 
from  that  productive  work ;  and  that  with  re- 
gard to  dress,  habits  of  work,  etc.,  he  shall 
become,  as  it  were,  completely  adapted  to  the 
atmosphere  of  the  shop. 

Experience  seems  to  show  that,  during  the 
early  stages  in  vocational  training,  the  funda- 
mental interests  in  the  case  of  most  youths 
center  in  concrete  productive  work ;  and  that 
where  they  do  not  do  so  it  is  desirable  that 
such  interests  should  be  established.  When, 
through  a  few  months'  concentrated  experi- 
ence, the  learner  has  fully  grasped  the  prac- 
tical principles  of  a  definite  calling,  and  has 
developed  a  definite  amount  of  skill  therein, 
the  time  is  appropriate  for  a  wider  treatment  of 


204          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

the  subject.  After  this  it  is  possible  to  begin 
studies  of  those  phases  of  drawing,  mathe- 
matics, and  other  subjects  which  have  a  dis- 
tinct bearing  on  the  vocation  for  which  train- 
ing is  being  had,  and  which  are  closely  related 
to  the  projects  already  worked  out.  Under 
these  conditions,  it  becomes  practicable  to 
develop,  in  connection  with  a  somewhat  less 
amount  of  productive  work,  the  studies  which 
relate  to  it,  and  for  which,  as  time  goes  by, 
separate  provision  can  be  made  in  classrooms 
under  charge  of  teachers  who  may,  in  some 
instances,  confine  themselves  to  purely  tech- 
nical subjects.  It  seems  highly  probable  that 
in  this  way  a  thoroughgoing  and  honest 
vocational  education  can  be  started.  Further- 
more, as  the  students  progress  through  this 
course,  some  will  drop  by  the  wayside,  and 
those  who  have  the  qualities  most  suitable  for 
the  making  of  foremen  and  other  leaders  will 
continue ;  and  for  these  a  further  develop- 
ment of  the  more  abstract  and  technical  studies 
will  be  highly  desirable.  Such  a  course  as 
this  does  not  lead  to  any  loss  of  time  on  the 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION  205 

part  of  those  who  have  neither  the  capacity  nor 
the  inclination  to  remain  a  considerable  time 
in  the  school.  On  the  other  hand,  it  also  makes 
ample  provision  for  the  development  of  those 
having  qualities  and  inclinations  making  for 
the  development  of  a  higher  type  of  efficiency. 

5.  How  far  can  the  economy  and  effective- 
ness of  vocational  education  be  increased  by 
cooperative  arrangements  for  part-time  work 
between  industries  and  the  school  system  ? 

Vocational  education,  if  it  is  to  have  spe- 
cially equipped  working  establishments  wherein 
all  of  its  phases  may  be  effectively  carried  on, 
will  prove  expensive.  Furthermore,  in  many 
instances  the  school  will  find  itself  at  a  rela- 
tive disadvantage  in  providing  the  conditions 
of  productive  work  and  in  disposing  of  the 
product. 

Logically,  the  simple  program  of  vocational 
education  would  seem  to  be  that  which  would 
provide  for  the  acquisition  of  practical  experi- 
ence in  actual  workshops,  and  for  the  pro- 
cesses of  related  instruction  in  schools. 

The  problem  seems  to  be  to  a  large  extent 


206  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

one  of  cooperation.  It  is  obvious  that  in  any 
part-time  education  the  youth's  practical  work 
should  be  so  adjusted  that  he  may  pass  on 
from  stage  to  stage,  in  order  to  acquire  the 
solid  experience  necessary  as  a  foundation  not 
only  for  subsequent  development  but  for  his 
technical  studies.  But  the  policy  of  shifting 
the  young  worker  from  job  to  job,  in  order 
that  he  may  acquire  a  wide  range  of  experi- 
ence, may,  it  is  claimed,  interfere  with  the 
discipline  of  the  workshop  and  its  organized 
productive  processes. 

Furthermore,  it  is  necessary  that  the  school 
should  be  in  a  position  closely  to  relate  its 
work  to  the  practical  experience  of  the  stu- 
dent. To  accomplish  this  under  the  school 
conditions  requires  that  teachers  themselves 
should  be  in  close  touch  with,  if  not  in  actual 
participation  in,  the  productive  work  of  the 
establishment. 

Cooperation  to  accomplish  these  purposes  is 
entirely  possible,  but  it  is  difficult  to  achieve. 
Logically,  a  part-time  system  promises  the 
maximum  of  result  in  the  way  of  vocational 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION  207 

training.  It  insures  the  practical  and  direct 
character  of  such  training.  It  compels  the 
youth  to  feel  from  the  start  the  moral  and 
intellectual  conditions  of  the  industry  into 
which  he  proposes  to  go. 

It  is  not  impossible^that  the  ultimate  solu- 
tion of  this  problem  will  be  found  in  a  variety 
of  flexible  schemes  adapted  to  specific  indus- 
tries. For  example,  in  the  machine-shop  in- 
dustry generally  it  may  prove  most  effective 
to  have  the  period  from  fourteen  to  sixteen 
given  entirely  to  vocational  school  training 
with  strong  emphasis  placed  on  the  practical 
work,  that  at  the  close  of  this  period  of  school 
training  some  of  the  boys  will  enter  shops, 
reserving  some  hours  for  part-time  work  or 
taking  evening  classes  for  purposes  of  advance- 
ment ;  and  that,  on  the  other  hand,  those  most 
capable  of  abstract  thinking  will  continue  in 
studies  of  a  much  more  technical,  as  contrasted 
with  work  of  a  practical,  character. 

6.  In  evening  vocational  education,  how 
far  is  it  desirable  that  the  program  shall  in- 
volve topics  or  units  of  training  that  are  short, 


208          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

specific,  and  the  outcome  of  which  can  be 
clearly  understood  by  the  learner? 

It  has  hitherto  been  customary  in  organiz- 
ing programs  of  evening  vocational  work  for 
persons  already  employed  to  confine  such 
courses  to  the  more  abstract  studies,  such  as 
drawing,  mathematics,  applied  science,  ac- 
counting, etc.  In  later  developments,  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  shop  practice  has  also  been 
introduced,  but  this  likewise  has  been  of  a 
more  or  less  general  nature,  intended  to  give 
the  progressive  learner  familiarity  with  gen- 
eral principles. 

Experience  now  demonstrates,  however,  that, 
considering  the  type  of  worker  coming  to  the 
evening  classes,  and  taking  account  also  of 
the  needs  which  he  presents,  it  may  be  desir- 
able to  organize  evening  work  on  a  very  much 
more  concrete  basis,  and  particularly  in  units 
so  short  and  specific  that  the  learner  himself 
may  not  only  easily  comprehend  their  bearing 
on  his  particular  needs,  but  may  be  able,  within 
limits,  to  test  himself  as  to  his  progress  in 
mastering  that  which  is  presented. 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION  209 

Hence,  there  seems  to  be  every  reason  for 
believing  that  evening  vocational  work  should, 
to  an  increasing  extent,  organize  itself  in  the 
shape  of  specific  units  of  achievement  in  math- 
ematics, drawing,  science,  etc.,  which  have  an 
immediate  and  direct  bearing  on  the  work 
which  the  person  is  following  during  the  day. 
Machine-shop  practice  and  the  learning  of  spe- 
cific operations  might  also  be  arranged  for 
in  evening  classes,  provided  that  the  work  is 
so  organized  that  the  learner  may,  for  exam- 
ple, in  a  course  of  a  dozen  lessons  or  six  weeks 
of  attendance,  find  himself  gaining  in  specific 
power. 

The  objection,  of  course,  may  be  made  that 
no  general  preparation  can  come  from  such  a 
procedure  as  this.  Experience,  however,  shows 
that  most  learners  will  gradually  build  up,  as 
it  were,  a  series  of  units  of  effective  power 
when  the  training  is  thus  organized. 

The  foregoing  are  a  few  of  the  problems  of 
vocational  education  with  reference  to  which 
there  is  now  needed  fuller  analysis,  discussion, 


210          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

and  experimentation.  A  large  amount  of  money 
will  be  invested  in  this  form  of  education  within 
the  next  few  years ;  state  and  even  national 
policies  will  be  f onnulated ;  and  a  variety  of 
unworkable  proposals  may  be  expected.  The 
time  is  more  than  ripe  for  a  closer  study  of 
various  special  phases  of  the  general  subject. 


IX 

PROBLEMS   IN   THE   PSYCHOLOGY   OF 
VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

WITHIN  recent  years  the  term  "  vocational 
education  "  has  come  into  fairly  common  use 
as  designating  any  kind  of  education  whose 
controlling  purpose  is  to  give  preparation  for 
recognized  callings  or  groups  of  related  call- 
ings. Medical  and  other  forms  of  professional 
training,  education  for  tie  various  commercial 
occupations,  specialized  preparation  for  the 
trades  and  manufacturing  pursuits,  agricul- 
tural education,  nautical  education,  and  train- 
ing for  the  arts  of  the  household  —  these  are 
all,  where  organized  towards  a  preconceived 
end  of  efficiency  in  useful  employment,  forms 
of  vocational  education. 

There  is  a  sense  in  which  it  may  be  said 
that  vocational  education  aas  always  existed 
and  is  even  now  universal.  AV.persons,  except 
infants,  the  aged,  and  other  helpless  members 


212          EDUCATIONAL  KEADJUSTMENT 

of  society,  have  always  had  to  exert  some 
strength,  skill,  or  cunning  in  obtaining  a 
livelihood,  and  for  this  they  have  had  to  have 
powers  based  on  active  bodily  and  mental  ca- 
pacities, on  the  one  hand,  and  experience,  acci- 
dentally or  systematically  acquired,  on  the  other. 
Strictly  speaking,  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
"  unskilled  labor,"  but  there  is  much  brawn 
and  experience  in  the  labor  markets  of  the 
world  which  is  available  for  fairly  ready  trans- 
fer to  various  occupations  requiring  only  the 
more  common  forms  of  strength,  skill,  and 
intelligence  —  qualit-es  which  are  more  or  less 
automatically  produced  through  the  growth 
processes  which  bring  such  native  instincts 
as  imitation  into  conjunction  with  society's 
customs. 

But  it  is  also  true  that  vocational  education 
of  a  more  or  less  purposeful  sort  has  long 
existed.  The  widespread  disposition  of  elder 
workers  in  all  ages  to  enlist  in  useful  employ- 
ments, first  by  suggestion  and  then  by  coercion, 
the  efforts  of  ^rifidren  is  the  result  of  a  genu- 
ine teaching  instinct.  The  learning  instincts 


PROBLEMS  IN  PSYCHOLOGY  213 

of  youth  are  always  complemented,  in  the  so- 
cial order,  by  the  teaching  instincts  of  the 
mature,  manifested  by  parents  and  others  in 
the  social  environment.  The  rites  of  initiation, 
while  often  religious  or  cultural  in  their  con- 
scious purposes,  not  infrequently  had  an  inti- 
mate bearing  on  some  vocational  capacity,  like 
that  of  soldier,  hunter,  sailor,  craftsman, 
tiller  of  the  soil,  or  household  worker.  It  is 
historically  certain  that  the  vocational  educa- 
tion of  the  Middle  Ages  —  that  of  the  pro- 
fessional orders  (priestly,  military,  medical, 
etc.),  commercial  guilds,  and  crafts  guilds  — 
was  the  most  elaborate  the  world  has  yet  seen. 
It  was  fortified  and  elaborated  not  only  by  the 
customs  and  ideals  of  the  period,  but  by  care- 
fully worked-out  legislation. 

When,  therefore,  we  discuss  current  prob- 
lems of  vocational  education,  it  should  be  with 
a  full  appreciation  of  the  widespread  historic 
and  also  contemporaneous  existence  of  un- 
numbered forms  of  such  education,  many  of 
them  doubtless  more  or  less  imperfect,  inade- 
quate, and  decadent.  Our  discussion  assumes 


214          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

the  probable  evolution  of  specialized  agencies, 
namely,  vocational  schools,  to  procure  the  train- 
ing for  productive  work  which  modern  social 
conditions  demand  and  for  which  existing 
agencies  other  than  schools  seem  inadequate. 
We  should  furthermore  recognize  that  for  cer- 
tain forms  of  vocational  education  —  e.g., 
medical,  legal,  theological,  normal,  engineer- 
ing, military,  and  some  commercial  —  the  use- 
fulness of  specific  schools,  as  supplanting  or 
supplementing  the  clumsy,  if  not  futile,  meth- 
ods of  apprenticeship  or  educationally  unsys- 
tematic participation  in  the  simpler  stages  of 
the  employment,  has  long  been  accepted. 

The  modern  demand  is  not  for  vocational 
schools  for  the  so-called  professional  callings, 
for  which,  in  the  main,  systematic  preparation 
is  now  begun  at  the  mature  age  of  eighteen 
to  twenty-two ;  it  is  for  schools  which  shall 
give  ordered  and  effective  vocational  training 
for  younger  learners,  —  those  from  fourteen 
to  eighteen  years  of  age,  —  and  for  whom  the 
most  promising  callings  are  found  in  the  more 
or  less  skilled  trades,  in  commercial  occupa- 


PROBLEMS  IN  PSYCHOLOGY  215 

tions,  in  agriculture,  and  in  the  household 
arts.  Sometimes  this  demand  is  actuated  by  a 
conviction  that  the  present  non-school  agencies 
are  less  effective  than  formerly,  both  in  pro- 
ducing efficient  workers  and  in  saving  boys 
and  girls  from  submergence  in  unskilled  and 
insufficiently  productive  labor ;  and  sometimes 
by  a  recognition  of  the  fact  that  in  many  con- 
temporary callings  the  entrance  of  applied  art 
and  science  has  been  of  such  a  nature  as  to 
create  a  need  for  new  types  of  vocational  edu- 
cation which  can  be  procured  only  through 
school  agencies. 

Contemporary  students  of  vocational  educa- 
tion are  convinced  that  it  will  introduce  new 
and  complicated  problems  of  educational  psy- 
chology. The  elaborate  mechanisms  of  liberal 
education  which  have  long  evolved  in  custom 
and  theory  and  which  are  being  but  now 
slowly  rationalized,  such  as  textbooks,  syllabi, 
recitation,  lectures,  memoriter  tests,  note- 
books, blackboards,  laboratories,  specialized 
subject-matter  logically  organized,  individual- 
ized study,  imaginary  contacts  with  concrete 


216          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

situations,  —  all  these  will  doubtless  prove 
hopelessly  inadequate  to  vocational  education 
under  school  conditions,  even  though  the  per- 
sistent character  of  these  mechanisms  will 
constantly  tend  to  be  manifest.  It  is  doubt- 
ful also,  whether  satisfactory  precedents  for 
method  and  organization  of  vocational  educa- 
tion in  the  common  occupations,  with  their 
large  emphasis  on  skill,  can  be  obtained  from 
vocational  schools  preparing  for  the  profes- 
sions, partly  because  of  the  relatively  academic 
character  of  professional  education  and  partly 
because  of  the  unusual  type  of  mind  found  in 
the  student  qualified  for  and  electing  to  pur- 
sue professional  study. 

The  most  fundamental  problem  in  voca- 
tional education  is  that  which  relates  to  the 
place  in  such  training  to  be  occupied  by  actual 
participation  in  the  processes  of  the  occupa- 
tion itself.  The  older  forms  of  vocational  edu- 
cation were  based  largely  on  such  participation. 
The  boy  became  a  hunter  by  hunting,  a  weaver 
by  taking  the  simpler  tasks  with  his  master,  a 


PROBLEMS  IN  PSYCHOLOGY  217 

tiller  of  the  soil  by  gradually  absorbing  knowl- 
edge and  evolving  skill  as  a  co-worker  with 
father  or  employer.  But  we  now  clearly  recog- 
nize that  certain  forms  of  vocational  power 
and  flexibility  are  acquired  with  difficulty,  if 
at  all,  under  an  apprenticeship  system  resting 
mainly  on  the  psychological  foundations  of 
imitation  and  suggestion.  These  limitations 
are  more  acutely  felt  in  proportion  as,  on  the 
one  hand,  industry  becomes  departmentalized, 
and,  on  the  other,  as  art  and  science  become 
more  purposefully  applied.  Herein  is  found 
the  second  large  problem  of  vocational  edu- 
cation. The  workshop  alone  may  give  the 
prospective  machinist  skill  in  tool  manipu- 
lation, but  it  cannot  give  in  any  effective 
way  the  mastery  of  drawing,  of  mechanics, 
of  mathematics,  of  industrial  economics,  and 
of  industrial  hygiene,  without  which  he  has 
but  limited  capacity  for  growth  or  for  play- 
ing any  satisfactory  role  as  citizen  and  mas- 
ter of  his  own  destinies.  The  ordinary  farm 
as  an  educational  institution  can  give  little 
of  the  science  which  the  modern  world  places 


218          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

at  the  disposal  of  the  properly  taught  tiller  of 
the  soil. 

In  fact,  in  nearly  all  vocations  there  may  be 
distinguished  two  types  of  elements,  namely, 
skill  and  other  products  of  direct  experience 
in  the  occupation  itself,  and,  in  addition,  cer- 
tain types  of  knowledge,  ideal,  and  power  hav- 
ing form  and  content  outside  the  specific 
occupation,  but  capable  of  application  to  it. 
The  student  of  stenography  learns  English 
only  to  a  slight  degree  in  the  study  of  stenog- 
raphy, but  good  English  is  essential  to  that 
calling  and  must  be  acquired  either  previous 
to,  simultaneously  with,  or  subsequent  to  the 
acquisition  of  skill  in  stenography.  The  car- 
penter needs  drawing  and  certain  forms  of 
mathematics  in  his  craft;  the  cabinetmaker 
needs  design;  the  homemaker,  various  forms 
of  science,  such  as  bacteriology  and  chemistry, 
to  say  nothing  of  applied  art;  and  the  farmer 
needs  economics,  soil  physics,  and  bookkeep- 
ing as  tools  of  his  calling. 

Now,  since  it  would  appear  that  the  intel- 
lectually prehensile  powers  of  the  youthful 


PROBLEMS  IN  PSYCHOLOGY  219 

mind  are  great  and  active,  it  is  natural  for  an 
unreflecting  pedagogy  to  seek  the  mastery  of 
these  more  intellectual  elements  of  vocational 
efficiency  in  advance  of  the  youth's  entry  on 
the  serious  and  more  direct  pursuit  of  his  call- 
ing. Is  drawing  a  useful  tool  to  the  mechanic, 
the  weaver,  the  commercial  traveler,  and  even 
to  the  farmer  and  the  homemaker?  Teach 
drawing,  then,  to  youth  in  advance  of  his  be- 
ing summoned  to  the  practical  school  of  ap- 
prenticeship. Should  the  modern  contributions 
of  bacteriology  be  at  the  disposal  of  the  farmer, 
the  nurse,  the  food-packer,  and  the  housewife  ? 
Teach  bacteriology  in  the  schools,  say  educa- 
tional theorists,  and  thereby  accomplish  an 
important  part  of  vocational  training. 

This  method  of  approach,  indeed,  has  been 
largely  characteristic  of  those  higher  forms  of 
vocational  education  called  professional.  The 
prospective  engineer  is  first  drilled  in  general 
mathematics,  drawing,  and  other  more  or  less 
logically  organized  fields  of  special  knowledge 
and,  occasionally,  skill.  The  prospective  med- 
ical practitioner  first  gives  his  attention  to  gen- 


220          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

eral  chemistry,  biology,  and  physiology.  The 
teacher's  first  year  in  the  normal  school  is 
given  to  psychology,  history  of  education, 
and  other  "basal"  subjects. 

It  is  not  certain,  of  course,  that  even  in 
professional  education  the  above  pedagogic 
order  is  the  most  effective.  It  may  only  be 
the  one  most  available  under  existing  condi- 
tions in  professional  schools  and  of  educa- 
tional tradition.  Even  now  we  see  legal  educa- 
tion substituting  the  "  case  method  "  for  the 
dreary  introductions  through  Blackstone  and 
other  purveyors  of  "  fundamental  principles." 
Dissecting-room,  clinic,  and  hospital  appren- 
ticeship seem  to  play  a  larger  part  than  for- 
merly in  legitimate  medical  education,  and  a 
metropolitan  university  now  proposes  to  make 
actual  service  in  water  and  milk  analysis  and 
other  municipal  activities  in  sanitation  a  rec- 
ognized part  of  the  training  of  those  who  are 
later  to  practice  the  arts  of  healing  and  of 
disease  prevention.  Laboratory,  workshop, 
and  summer  camp  are  being  more  extensively 
employed  in  training  engineers,  and  it  would 


PROBLEMS  IN  PSYCHOLOGY  221 

appear  that,  barring  here  and  there  a  defender 
of  the  old  order,  the  professors  in  engineering 
colleges  are  attaching  less  importance,  rela- 
tively, to  the  extensive  preliminary  study  by 
their  students  of  pure  mathematics,  pure 
science,  and  other  "  theoretical "  subjects. 

But  whatever  the  case  in  professional  edu- 
cation, there  can  be  little  question  as  to  the 
futility,  in  the  vocational  education  of  youths 
from  fourteen  to  eighteen  years  of  age  for  the 
common  occupations  of  life,  of  a  pedagogy 
based  on  an  initial  mastery  of  the  more  in- 
tellectual elements  of  vocation.  Experience 
has  already  revealed  many  impediments  to  the 
process.  Neither  motive  nor  ability,  as  found 
in  such  youths,  is  sufficient  to  enable  them  to 
master  the  fundamentals  in  science  and  art 
preliminary  to  the  application  of  these  in  vo- 
cation. Professional  students,  as  a  rule,  be- 
long to  an  intellectually  select  class,  distin- 
guished largely  by  its  capacity  for  abstract 
thinking  and  constructive  imagination.  Every 
step  in  the  boy's  "  running  the  gantlet "  from 
the  primary  school  to  the  doors  of  the  pro- 


222          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

fessional  school  is  designed  to  discover  and 
promote  these  qualities.  But  the  typical 
worker  in  the  wage-earning  callings  is  distin- 
guished by  his  "  concreteness  "  of  mind.  Skill 
in  execution,  not  grasp  of  principles,  is  the 
demand  made  upon  him  by  his  nature,  his 
surroundings,  and  the  idealism  of  his  calling. 
He  can  utilize,  not  the  principal  contributions 
of  the  sciences  and  arts,  but  important  sections 
and  suggestions,  here  and  there,  from  them. 
The  loom-fixer,  the  machinist,  the  farmer,  the 
bookkeeper,  and  the  chainman  are  greatly  in 
need  of  certain  specific  helps  from  mathemat- 
ics. Neither  time,  capacity,  nor  inclination 
permit  them  to  seek  their  necessary  needles  in 
the  haystack  of  general  mathematics ;  they  de- 
sire to  leave  the  winnowing  process  to  special- 
ists (perhaps  schoolmasters)  with  time  and 
capacity  for  that  sort  of  work.  The  farmer 
cannot  be  meteorologist,  chemist,  and  biologist, 
but  he  needs  certain  "  derivative  products " 
from  those  sciences  badly,  and  he  claims  that 
his  vocational  education  should  put  him  in 
possession  of  them.  In  the  great  majority  of 


PROBLEMS  IN  PSYCHOLOGY  223 

everyday  vocations,  taking  account  of  the 
qualities  of  those  who  are  to  follow  them,  the 
system  of  providing  in  advance  the  "intel- 
lectual" as  contrasted  with  the  "experiential" 
elements  seems  destined  to  failure.  Some 
educators  of  shrewd  insight  suspect  that  this 
may  also  prove  true  in  "  general "  or  "  liberal" 
education ;  but,  whatever  the  event  may  show 
in  that  field,  we  are  now  compelled  to  assume 
that  effective  vocational  education  requires 
a  pedagogy  in  which  the  results  of  practical 
experience  in  a  calling  shall  be  closely  interre- 
lated with  processes  designed  to  procure  suffi- 
cient grasp  of  the  more  intellectual  elements. 
This  constitutes  the  basis  of  the  several  large 
problems  of  an  educational  psychology  of 
vocational  education. 

Vocational  education  must  either  provide, 
or  intimately  relate  itself  to,  the  acquisition 
of  practical  experience,  and  it  must  discover 
ways  of  adding  thereto  the  more  intellectual 
elements  without  relying  on  the  logical  organ- 
ization and  external  and  detached  character 
of  the  subjects  making  these  contributions. 


224          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

Theoretically  considered,  from  the  stand- 
points both  of  economy  and  of  efficiency,  it 
would  seem  that  the  most  promising  method 
of  organizing  true  vocational  education  would 
be  to  allow  the  workshop,  the  farm,  the  com- 
mercial establishment,  and  the  household  to 
continue  their  historic  educational  function, 
namely,  that  of  providing  by  actual  work  un- 
der normal  conditions  of  employment  the 
"experiential"  basis,  the  vocational  school, 
so-called,  coming  in  to  supplement  with  the 
appropriate  "intellectual"  elements.  This 
arrangement,  indeed,  is  that  contemplated  by 
the  so-called  "part-time"  or  "continuation" 
type  of  vocational  training.  The  vocational 
evening  school  also  exemplifies  the  application 
of  this  principle  to  the  needs  of  more  mature 
students.  In  practice,  the  weakness  of  joint 
or  "cooperative"  programs  of  vocational  edu- 
cation of  this  sort  is  their  lack  of  integration. 
The  practical  experience  acquired  in  the  work- 
shop—  here  used  as  a  general  term  for  any 
place  where  actual  experience  in  productive 
work  is  had  under  conditions  commercially 


PROBLEMS  IN  PSYCHOLOGY  225 

characteristic  of  the  occupation — is  likely  to 
be  specialized  and  without  educational  se- 
quence or  organization.  The  school  work  is 
prone  to  develop  a  theoretic  organization,  with 
the  result  that  its  returns  in  knowledge,  spe- 
cialized skill,  etc.,  may  be  more  or  less  per- 
manently placed  in  mental  cold  storage.  Much 
evening  instruction  is  of  this  "  non-function- 
ing" character;  only  the  rare  student  can 
bridge  the  gap  and  carry  his  freightage  of 
theory  into  application. 

Even  when  we  shall  have  reached  a  full 
social  realization  of  the  law  that  the  plastic 
years  of  youth  should  be  at  least  partly  re- 
served for  learning,  and  when  employers  and 
teachers  shall  have  learned  to  cooperate  in 
arranging  that  practical  and  productive  work 
shall  be  made  to  contribute  its  best  educational 
results,  it  may  prove  necessary  in  certain  vo- 
cational fields  to  bring  a  workshop  into  the 
school  in  order  to  obtain  a  proper  integration 
of  practical  and  theoretic  elements  in  voca- 
tional training.  In  the  making  of  the  stenog- 
rapher, for  example,  this  is  now  done,  because 


226          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

commercial  "  shop  "  conditions  cannot  tolerate 
the  mere  learner.  In  a  hundred  other  direc- 
tions this  may  also  prove  to  be  the  case. 

We  shall  have  to  turn  eventually  to  edu- 
cational psychology  to  assist  us  in  organizing 
this  practical  work  so  as  to  get  a  working  re- 
sultant between  standards  of  skill,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  extent  of  ground  to  be  covered,  on 
the  other.  How  long  shall  the  learning  ma- 
chinist use  one  tool  in  a  single  type  of  opera- 
tion ?  Until  he  has  skill  and  speed  equal  to 
the  commercial  demand,  or  only  until  he  has 
a  sufficient  basis  of  experience  to  enable  him 
to  grasp  the  related  supplemental  studies 
and  to  start  "right"  in  his  later  shop  work? 
Only  a  scientific  study  of  the  problem  by  edu- 
cators appreciative  of  the  meaning  of  "indus- 
trial efficiency  in  the  long  run "  can  tell. 
In  the  mean  time,  without  prejudice  to  what 
educational  psychology  and  commercial  de- 
mand may  eventually  prove  to  be  the  valid 
method,  it  is  the  privilege,  if  not  the  duty,  of 
vocational  teachers  and  of  employers  to  con- 
tinue to  guess  to  the  best  of  their  ability. 


PROBLEMS  IN  PSYCHOLOGY  22T 

But  a  still  more  serious  problem  for  educa- 
tional psychology  is  to  be  found  in  the 
"  method  "  of  organizing  and  presenting  the 
more  intellectual  elements  of  the  various  vo- 
cations to  young  learners.  Ages  of  experience 
in  apprenticeship  should  have  given  us  many 
clues  to  the  organization  of  the  practical  side 
of  the  student's  program.  Schools  of  liberal 
education  long  ago  established  logical  orders 
of  subject-matter  organization  in  the  theo- 
retic fields  of  the  sciences,  arts,  and  histories 
upon  which  vocational  education  must  draw. 
But,  as  already  indicated,  experience  shows 
that  we  cannot  utilize  these  subjects  as  now 
organized  in  the  training  of  the  rank  and  file 
of  workers.  Few,  if  any,  precedents  yet  exist 
for  the  organization  of  programs  of  study  and 
practice  in  the  more  intellectual  phases  of 
vocational  training.  Tell  a  machine-shop  in- 
structor not  to  require  of  his  pupils  a  system- 
atic course  in  mechanical  drawing,  but  to 
base  a  series  of  drawing  lessons  on  the  prac- 
tical work  which  his  pupils  are  doing  from 
day  to  day,  and  he  complains  that  they  "  must 


228          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

first  learn  the  principles."  Tell  a  normal- 
school  teacher  that  the  best  psychology  of 
education,  at  least  for  normal-school  young 
women,  should  probably  grow  out  of  and  be 
built  upon  their  daily  problems  of  teaching, 
and  he  or  she,  too,  will  raise  embarrassing 
questions  as  to  terminology  and  "general 
principles,"  and  will  conclude  by  asking  if 
any  authoritative  textbook  exemplifies  the 
"  new  method."  Ask  a  teacher  in  an  agricul- 
tural school,  whose  boys  may  be  doing  very 
practical  and  even  scientific  work  (the  result 
of  suggestion),  in  growing  corn  and  raising 
poultry,  to  forego  the  teaching  of  systematic 
chemistry,  botany,  physics,  bacteriology,  etc., 
in  favor  of  "  agricultural  science,"  and  he  will 
look  dazed,  while  forlornly  and  helplessly  set- 
ting to  work  to  do  as  he  is  asked.  We  are  re- 
quiring these  teachers  to  construct  a  new  type 
of  pedagogical  material.  Except  in  the  pri- 
mary school,  educational  psychology  hardly 
furnishes  even  the  help  of  analogous  situa- 
tions. Nevertheless,  in  the  vocational  school 
claiming  to  be  effective  we  must  fight  persist- 


PROBLEMS  IN  PSYCHOLOGY  229 

ently  for  a  new  pedagogic  organization  of 
subject-matter  wherein  practice  must  form 
the  groundwork  and  point  of  departure  for 
the  more  theoretic  studies.  Ideally,  we  are 
seeking  a  program  wherein  concrete  and  vital 
experience,  gradually  interpreted  and  illu- 
minated into  a  unity  of  skill  and  comprehension 
of  principles  in  their  application  to  the  calling, 
shall  be  the  outcome  of  vocational  education. 
We  dare  not  in  genuine  vocational  education 
content  ourselves,  on  the  practical  side  of  such 
training,  with  the  fool's  paradise  of  imitation 
and  sham  participation  in  the  real  work  of 
life,  such  as  manual  training  exercises,  the 
sprouting  of  a  few  seeds,  the  embroidering  of 
doilies,  the  making  of  pastries,  and  amateur- 
ish dabbling  with  typewriting  and  bookkeep- 
ing, nor  shall  we  find  in  systematized  mathe- 
matics, drawing,  chemistry,  economics,  and 
kindred  subjects  the  forms  of  organization 
and  methods  of  presentation  adapted  to  the 
need  of  our  pupils.  We  are  face  to  face  with  a 
new  department  of  education,  largely  a  modern 
development,  wherein  we  have  no  more  science 


230          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

to  guide  us  than  in  other  departments  and 
vastly  less  of  tradition. 

It  may  be  hoped  that  because  we  have  such  a 
paucity  of  tradition  progress  will  be  the  more 
rapid.  If  we  could  persuade  a  few  investigators 
to  take  this  as  their  field,  such  might  be  the 
case.  Unfortunately,  the  harried  teachers  in 
our  vocational  schools  can  give  little  time  to 
constructive  programs,  although  it  is  hard  to 
see  how  they  can  succeed  in  their  work  until 
they  shall  have  accomplished  something  in 
this  direction.  The  administrative  authorities 
of  such  schools  have  their  problems  in  forcing 
a  place  for  the  practical  work  and  in  prevent- 
ing a  relapse  into  the  stereotyped  pedagogical 
methods  evolved  in  the  ages  of  bookish  sec- 
ondary education  —  an  education  which  has 
rarely  discovered,  much  less  studied,  the  learner, 
but  the  votaries  of  which,  like  Hindoo  mystics, 
contemplative  of  their  bodies,  have  focused 
their  attention  on  subject-matter  until  self- 
hypnotization  has  rendered  them  oblivious  to 
the  world  of  external  actualities. 


PROBLEMS  IN  PSYCHOLOGY  231 

We  may  summarize,  then,  as  follows :  — 

1.  Vocational    education   is   a   distinctive 
type  of  education,  especially  when  promoted 
under  school  conditions.  It  presents  distinctive 
new  problems  to  the  educational  psychologist. 

2.  Present  experience  seems  to  demonstrate 
that   a  large  —  perhaps  major  —  place  must 
be  given  in  vocational  education  to  productive 
work,  graduated  by  stages,  in  the  occupations 
themselves.  Historic  experience  may  assist  in 
shaping  the  programs  of  this  work,  but  ulti- 
mately careful  experimental   studies  of  the 
processes  by  which  skill  —  flexible  and  capa- 
ble of  growth  —  may  be  developed,  must  be 
made. 

3.  Skill  and  other  products  of  direct  expe- 
riential contact  with  vocational  situations  con- 
stitute a  considerable  part  of  a  complete  voca- 
tional education,  but  a  no  less  important  part 
will  be   found   in  the  knowledge,  auxiliary 
forms  of  skill,  and  ideals  which  function  in 
the  larger,  more  flexible,  and  more  prolonged 
vocational  efficiency.  For  education  in  these 
latter  elements  in  the  case  of  youths  of  four- 


232  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

teen  to  eighteen  years  of  age,  existing  peda- 
gogic processes,  whether  scientific  or  custom- 
ary, offer  as  yet  little  assistance.  This  is 
peculiarly  a  field  for  constructive  scientific 
study. 


CENTRALIZED  VS.  LOCALIZED  ADMINISTRA- 
TION OF  PUBLIC  EDUCATION 

LOCALIZED  and  democratic  administration 
of  public  education  is  characterized  by  the  fol- 
lowing qualities :  The  constitution  of  the  State 
authorizes  and  establishes  public  instruction 
only  in  most  general  terms ;  State  legislation 
regarding  it  is  not  specific,  and  is  largely  per- 
missive; schools  and  school  systems  are  ad- 
ministered and  supervised  mainly  by  laymen 
holding  office  for  short  periods  and  quite  re- 
sponsive to  public  opinion  ;  the  areas  of  admin- 
istration for  important  functions  are  small,  such 
as  districts,  or  wards  of  cities ;  town  meetings 
or  public  elections  are  competent  to  decide  a 
variety  of  administrative  questions,  such  as  ap- 
propriating money,  selecting  textbooks,  locat- 
ing schoolhouses,  and  deciding  on  new  types  of 
education;  and  State  officials  have  mainly  advis- 
ory powers,  or  at  most  certain  powers  of  veto. 


234          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

Centralized  administration,  on  the  other 
hand,  exhibits  the  following  characteristics : 
The  State  constitution  fixes  many  administra- 
tive details,  such  as  types  of  schools  that  may 
be  permitted,  maximum  tax  levies  that  may  be 
imposed,  methods  to  be  employed  in  distribut- 
ing funds,  and  qualifications  and  compensa- 
tions for  certain  offices ;  the  State  legislature, 
by  statute  and  by  its  control  of  municipal  gov- 
ernment, regulates  a  variety  of  the  details  of 
administration,  thus  reducing  the  possibilities 
of  initiative  and  variation  in  the  local  com- 
munity; administrative  functions  are  trans- 
ferred from  the  smaller  to  the  larger  areas,  as 
when  certification  of  teachers,  selection  of  text- 
books, formation  of  courses  of  study,  inspec- 
tion of  schools,  conduct  of  institutes,  and  other 
administrative  functions  become  the  duties  of 
State  officials,  or  when  the  district  or  the  part 
of  the  city  has  to  yield  its  authority  to  the 
county  or  to  the  consolidated  city;  popular 
meetings  and  elections  diminish  in  number  and 
effectiveness,  their  powers  being  conveyed  to 
representative  boards ;  lay  boards  decrease  in 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  EDUCATION       235 

size,  their  members  are  appointed  rather  than 
elected,  and  the  members'  terms  of  office  are 
prolonged,  thus  removing  them  from  the  im- 
mediate control  of  the  popular  will ;  under  the 
lay  boards  appear  experts  whose  functions 
increase  at  the  expense  of  the  board,  whose 
tenure  becomes  relatively  secure,  and  who  are 
not  necessarily  representative  of,  or  informed 
with  regard  to,  the  local  opinion  and  will. 

The  history  of  American  education  shows 
that  centralization  in  one  form  or  another  has 
been  a  progressive  tendency  for  more  than 
half  a  century  in  nearly  all  the  States  of  the 
Union.  This  movement  is  parallel  to  a  similar 
evolution  which  has  taken  place  in  almost  all 
other  departments  of  social  economy,  such  as 
business,  government,  charity  and  philan- 
thropy, research,  etc.  At  bottom  it  is  a  prod- 
uct of  two  factors :  the  demand  for  efficiency 
and  economy,  on  the  one  hand;  and  the 
growth  of  intelligence,  means  of  communi- 
cation, and  organizing  ability,  on  the  other. 
If,  under  organizing  ability,  we  include  the 


236          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

capacity  of  a  democracy  to  select  wise  leaders 
and  to  maintain  an  effective  oversight  on  the 
actions  of  these,  then  it  may  be  said  that  the 
degree  to  which  centralization  at  any  time  may 
proceed  must  be  the  resultant  of  the  two  fac- 
tors mentioned  above. 

Centralized  administration  of  public  educa- 
tion may  have,  at  any  given  period,  some  good 
and  some  bad  effects.  Other  things  remaining 
equal,  it  promotes  efficiency  in  the  following 
directions :  — 

(a)  It  develops  uniformity  over  large  areas, 
with  the  accompanying  possibilities  of  econ- 
omy. Types  of  educational  effort  may  be  co- 
ordinated, official  bodies  reduced,  conflicting 
jurisdiction  adjusted,  and  the  material  means 
of  instruction  provided  on  a  large  scale. 

(6)  It  permits  the  collective  wisdom  of  the 
larger  area  to  control  the  actions  of  the  smaller, 
to  maintain  at  least  a  minimum  level  of  cultural 
uniformity,  and  thus  to  prevent  local  develop- 
ments hostile  to  the  best  interests  of  the  State. 
The  State  may  determine  the  minimum  amount 
of  money  to  be  given  locally  to  public  educa- 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  EDUCATION       237 

tion ;  it  may  aid  weaker  localities ;  it  may  in- 
spect the  results  of  local  educational  effort; 
and  it  may  enforce  the  establishment  of  new 
types  of  education;  in  a  similar  way,  the 
county  as  opposed  to  the  smaller  areas,  or  the 
city  as  opposed  to  its  divisions,  may  enforce 
conditions  of  efficiency  better  than  the  more 
minute  divisions. 

(c)  It   makes   possible  the  substitution  of 
carefully-planned  and  coordinated  policies  for 
the  vagaries  and  immature  schemes  of  purely 
local  administration  with  its  popular  control 
and  inexpert  management.    A  large  city,  or 
county,  or  other  area,  or  the  State,  in  inaugu- 
rating new  policies  may  have  specialists  plan- 
ning the  work  even  for  years  before  the  first 
step  is  taken.  Information  from  various  sources 
may  be  collected,  and  experiments  conducted, 
before  the  promulgation  of  a  new  policy. 

(d)  Finally,  centralized  administration  makes 
possible  the  introduction  and  development  of 
the  expert.    Undoubtedly  this  is  its  most  im- 
portant contribution  to  efficiency.  In  propor- 
tion as  the  primitive  art  of  educational  admin- 


238          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

istration  becomes  complex  and  is  transformed 
into  a  field  of  applied  science,  the  presence  of 
specially  qualified  experts  becomes  indispen- 
sable. But  the  development  of  the  expert 
seems  to  be  possible  only  in  divisions  large 
either  in  area  or  population  and  under  condi- 
tions of  control  which  are  not  purely  demo- 
cratic as  democracy  was  understood  in  the 
primitive  life  of  America.  Among  the  types 
of  expert  service  already  past  the  experimental 
stage  of  development  in  American  education 
may  be  mentioned  the  architect,  to  plan  and 
supervise  the  erection  of  school  buildings ;  the 
man  who  is  at  once  physician  and  educator,  to 
direct  various  aspects  of  physical  education, 
such  as  medical  inspection,  physical  training, 
and  to  supervise  the  hygienic  conditions  of  in- 
struction ;  the  business  manager,  to  attend  to 
the  financial  affairs  of  the  school  system ;  the 
statistician,  who  directs  the  making  of  school 
records  and  reports,  and  who  is  able  to  utilize 
these  so  as  to  derive  conclusions  suggestive  of 
new  administrative  procedures ;  the  specialized 
supervisor  of  instruction,  whether  of  some 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  EDUCATION       289 

division  of  the  educational  system,  as  kinder- 
gartens, rural  schools,  grammar  grades  so- 
called,  or  high  school,  or  of  instruction  in 
some  type  of  subject-matter,  such  as  music  or 
manual  arts;  or,  finally,  the  superintendent, 
the  earliest  of  the  experts  to  be  developed, 
and  the  man  who  must  yet  stand  at  the  head 
of  any  system,  expressing  its  most  genuine  de- 
mands and  coordinating  the  various  aspects  of 
its  activities  in  the  interest,  first,  of  the  indi- 
vidual child,  and,  second,  in  the  final  welfare 
of  the  State. 

Not  only  have  the  most  successful  attempts 
at  centralization  thus  far  made  possible  the 
utilization  of  these  experts  ;  they  create  in 
turn  new  fields  of  leadership  for  which  we 
may  soon  expect  able  men  and  women  to  pre- 
pare themselves.  American  education  is  rap- 
idly developing  the  profession  of  superintend- 
ent of  schools,  an  office  which  has  no  exact 
counterpart  elsewhere,  but  which  must  become 
indispensable  to  educational  progress.  Other 
types  of  specialized  experts  must  soon  be  pro- 
vided. The  development  of  physical  education 


240          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

in  the  broad  sense  of  that  word  must  give  us 
yet  the  man  who  is  physician  and  educator 
combined ;  the  direction  of  vocational  educa- 
tion will  require  experts  who  can  devote  their 
lives  and  a  long  period  of  training  to  this 
work ;  and  some  day  we  must  produce  leaders 
who  can  strike  out  plans  for  moral  or  social 
training  and  superintend  their  execution.  It  is 
in  evidence  that  educational  finances,  school 
architecture,  the  selection  of  textbooks,  the 
education  of  defectives  and  delinquents,  and 
the  adjustment  of  children  to  practical  life 
through  employment  bureaus  will  all  in  turn 
demand  their  experts.  These  are  all  conditions 
of  true  educational  efficiency;  and  their  de- 
velopment through  and  under  experts  requires 
an  increasing  centralized  administration  of 
public  education. 

On  the  other  hand,  certain  evils  tend  to 
follow  in  the  train  of  centralized  administra- 
tion of  public  education.  The  most  conspicu- 
ous of  these  are  :  — 

(a)  Lack  of  adaptability.  Communities  vary 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  EDUCATION       241 

in  their  characteristics,  needs,  and  ability  to 
support  varying  forms  of  public  schools.  One 
portion  of  a  city  may  differ  from  another, 
rural  areas  may  differ  from  urban  areas,  and 
districts  populated  by  foreigners  may  present 
special  needs.  Uniform  schemes  administered 
by  central  authorities  fail  in  flexibility,  and 
become  mechanical.  Until  we  know  much 
better  than  we  now  do  the  genuine  aims  of 
public  education,  uniform  schemes  may  work 
marked  harm  through  failure  to  meet  local 
needs.  This  evil  is  not,  of  course,  an  inherent 
one  in  centralized  administration,  since  expert 
direction  may  eventually  produce  flexibility, 
if  there  is  intelligent  local  demand  for  it ;  but 
it  is  a  usual  accompaniment. 

(6)  Akin  to  this  unwelcome  result  is  the 
waning  of  popular  interest.  Localized  and  pop- 
ular administration  of  education  has  produced 
in  all  sections  of  America  a  more  intense  pub- 
lic interest  and  activity  than  has  any  other 
form  of  social  action.  Some  forms  of  political 
activity  may  thrive  and  develop  without  pop- 
ular interest;  not  so  public  education.  The 


242          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

best  of  school  education  must  blend  inti- 
mately with  home  and  community  interests ; 
the  absence  or  withdrawal  of  this  cooperation 
chills  and  mechanizes  school  agencies.  Much 
of  the  effectiveness  of  American  education 
has  been  realized,  in  spite  of  its  imperfect 
administration,  largely  owing  to  the  popular 
devotion  to  its  ideals  and  processes.  In  the 
face  of  centralizing  tendencies  it  is  hard 
to  keep  alive  local  interest;  for  the  most 
genuine  form  comes  only  when  the  imme- 
diate community  has  enough  control  of  the 
administrative  machinery  to  make  its  will 
felt. 

(c)  Equally  serious  is  the  effect  of  central- 
ization in  diminishing  possibilities  for  varia- 
tion and  experiment.  President  Butler  has 
declared  that  spontaneity  is  the  characteris- 
tic feature  of  American  education.  Not  only 
has  the  public  school  itself  been  indigenous  to 
each  State,  but  to  a  large  extent  all  the  special 
features  of  public  education  have  had  a  local 
and  spontaneous  development.  Within  each 
State  communities  have  vied  with  each  other, 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  EDUCATION        243 

have  embarked  upon  experiments,  have  devel- 
oped and  fixed  variations  in  new  directions. 
Speaking  in  biological  terms  the  variability 
of  American  education  has  been  enormous, 
which,  considering  the  conditions,  has  resulted 
in  much  progress.  Ultimately  society  will  reach 
the  point  where,  as  now  in  the  case  of  medi- 
cine, it  will  support  conscious  experimentation 
on  a  large  scale  in  education,  but  until  then, 
we  can  hardly  afford  to  surrender  the  oppor- 
tunities, however  crude  and  wasteful,  which 
exist  in  a  decentralized  form  of  educational 
administration,  especially  when  the  spirit  of 
experimentation  and  competition  still  prevails. 
Lack  of  variability  as  in  the  case  of  adapta- 
bility is  not  an  inherent  evil  of  centralized 
administration,  but  a  probable  tendency  in  the 
pre-scientific  stages  in  which  public  education 
still  exists. 

(d)  Finally,  we  have  to  note  that  adminis- 
trative centralization  tends  to  entail  the  evils 
of  bureaucracy,  and  not  less  when  it  is  in 
charge  of  experts  with  more  or  less  perma- 
nent tenure.  These  experts  must  inevitably 


244          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

tend  towards  group  solidarity,  having  kindred 
sentiments  and  interests,  both  in  pursuit  of 
social  satisfaction  and  while  endeavoring  to 
accomplish  mutual  improvement.  The  rela- 
tions of  the  experts  towards  the  public  tend  to 
become  official  and  formal.  In  time,  a  bureau- 
cracy may  be  formed,  with  distinctively  anti- 
social tendencies. 

We  have  now  described  in  somewhat  ex- 
treme contrast  the  desirable  and  undesirable 
effects  of  the  centralized  administration  to- 
wards which  our  American  public  school  sys- 
tems are,  with  occasional  exceptions,  steadily 
tending.  There  remain  for  consideration  the 
means  by  which  some  adjustments  between 
local  and  popular  administration,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  centralized  and  expert  administra- 
tion, on  the  other,  can  be  effected  so  as  to 
produce  the  maximum  of  social  good.  Many 
such  adjustments  have  already  been  made  in 
an  empiric  fashion,  and  many  more  are  theo- 
retically feasible.  The  evolution  of  English 
government,  as  Lowell  indicates  at  numerous 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  EDUCATION        245 

points,1  has  produced  a  variety  of  means  of 
combining  local  and  central  control  so  as  to 
minimize  the  evil  effects  of  each.  The  Educa- 
tion Bill  of  1902,  among  other  recent  admin- 
istrative measures  in  public  education,  brings 
into  action  a  number  of  devices  to  produce 
the  same  effect.  But  in  most  of  the  American 
States  it  can  hardly  be  said  that  policies  of 
adjustment  have  reached  the  plane  of  political 
consciousness,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that 
in  most  State  legislatures  there  is  at  each  ses- 
sion an  almost  constant  struggle  between  the 
opponents  and  proponents  of  measures  making 
in  turn  for  centralization  or  decentralization. 
Too  often  the  contest  is  for  the  preservation 
of  some  purely  local  function  or  for  its  com- 
plete centralization  ;  not  enough  do  legislators 
seek  constructive  measures  in  the  middle 
ground.  But  it  is  possible,  through  an  exami- 
nation of  the  results  obtained  in  some  States, 
and  on  the  basis  of  some  European  experi- 
ence, to  suggest  means  of  adjustment.  Among 
these  are  the  following :  — 

1  A.  Lawrence   Lowell.      The  Government   of  England, 
2  vols.,  The  Macmillan  Company,  1908. 


246          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

I.  The  complete  exercise  of  a  given  func- 
tion may  be  divided  between  two  agencies, 
one  of  which  represents  the  relatively  expert 
and  centralized  aspect  of  administration,  the 
other  the  more  democratic  and  local.  Accord- 
ing to  conditions  the  initiative  will  lie  with 
the  one  or  the  other  of  these  agencies. 

The  following  are  the  principal  situations 
involved  in  educational  administration :  — 

(a)  The  division  of  power  between  expert 
and  lay  officials.  This  is  already  found  in  a 
State  like  New  York  in  which  a  lay  board 
acts  through  an  expert  commissioner  of  edu- 
cation ;  in  those  forms  of  county  government 
found  especially  in  Southern  States  and  in 
Indiana  in  which  a  lay  board  elects  and  oper- 
ates through  an  expert  county  superintend- 
ent ;  and  especially  in  cities  in  which  the  lay 
boards  have  gradually  ceased  to  exercise  ad- 
ministrative functions,  but  hold  themselves 
responsible  for  general  legislation  and  for 
final  approval  or  veto  of  the  acts  of  the  ex- 
pert superintendent.  By  law  in  the  State  of 
Ohio  and  by  local  provision  in  the  cities  of 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  EDUCATION       247 

many  other  States,  boards  of  education  have, 
after  many  years  of  hesitation,  given  to  the 
superintendent  the  supreme  function  of  the 
expert,  which  is  the  nomination  of  those  who 
are  to  teach  or  otherwise  work  in  the  schools ; 
in  these  cases  the  boards  reserve  only  the 
right  of  final  veto  or  approval  on  the  nomi- 
nations of  the  superintendent.  It  is  needless 
here  to  point  out  that  such  a  division  of 
power  as  this  serves  largely  as  a  corrective  to 
various  of  the  possible  evils  of  centralization 
discussed  above.  Giving  large  powers  to  the 
expert,  it  yet  reserves  a  form  of  final  control 
to  the  public  and  its  lay  representatives.  Such 
a  conscious  division  of  powers  is  not  yet 
widely  found  in  practice  in  American  States. 
The  State  and  county  superintendents,  who 
should  be  experts,  are  in  too  many  instances 
chosen  by  popular  election  for  definite  terms 
and  are  responsible  only  to  the  public,  all  of 
which  conditions  preclude  the  development 
of  the  real  expert.  In  some  cases  State  and 
county  boards  are  really  composed  of  experts, 
but  are  only  partially  allocated  to  the  per- 


248          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

formance  of  expert  functions.  American  cities 
show  this  division  of  administrative  powers  at 
its  best. 

(6)  A  second  form  of  divided  administra- 
tive power  is  found  in  that  which  is  practicable 
between  the  more  central  and  the  more  local 
agencies,  whether  these  be  expert  or  lay.  Illus- 
trations of  this  are  found  where  the  legislature 
fixes  by  statute  maxima  and  minima  of  taxa- 
tion, leaving  to  local  communities  considerable 
local  option  ;  or  under  a  minimum  salary  law 
which  allows  the  local  area  to  exercise  its  own 
option  in  exceeding  the  maximum ;  or  where 
State  or  other  central  approval  is  required  for 
plans  of  buildings  locally  drawn ;  or  in  the 
existence  of  State  courses  of  study  which  may 
or  may  not  be  locally  adopted  ;  but  especially 
in  the  widespread  tendency  of  State  prescrip- 
tion of  general  features  of  courses,  with  op- 
portunity for  fixing  the  details  locally.  A 
striking  development  of  this  form  of  offset  to 
centralization  is  found  in  England  in  which 
the  National  Board  of  Education  suggests  to 
local  authorities  a  large  number  of  alternatives 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  EDUCATION       249 

in  many  aspects  of  local  administration,  leav- 
ing to  local  authorities  responsibility  for  pro- 
posing definite  plans  and  specifications.  These 
in  turn  must  be  approved  by  the  higher  au- 
thorities before  they  can  become  effective. 
The  possibilities  of  a  further  development  of 
this  division  of  administrative  power  in  Amer- 
ican States  is  great,  especially  where  central- 
ized administration  tends  to  become  too  uni- 
form and  incapable  of  allowing  for  healthful 
variation.  There  is  no  inherent  reason  why, 
for  example,  the  adoption  of  a  State  system 
of  textbooks  should  mean  absolute  State  uni- 
formity. The  State  might  adopt  two  or  more 
of  the  best  texts  and  allow  for  local  choice 
among  these ;  or  it  might  adopt  a  single  list 
for  all  except  those  communities  which  could 
present  good  reasons  for  adopting  some  other 
series,  which  reasons  could  be  approved  or 
negatived  by  the  State  authorities.  There  is 
inherently  no  good  reason  why  a  course  of 
study  should  be  uniform  throughout  a  large 
city,  except  as  to  its  most  general  features. 
Probably  much  greater  opportunity  for  prog- 


250          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

ress  and  local  adaptation  would  be  found  if 
large  schools  were  each  able,  within  the  limits 
of  a  very  general  and  minimum  course,  to 
make  proposals  as  to  details,  which  should  re- 
ceive the  refusal  or  endorsement  of  the  central 
city  authorities.  It  is  not  impossible  that  as 
the  demands  for  a  richer  corporate  life  within 
the  school  increase,  the  head  of  the  school 
will  be  given  much  greater  authority  than  he 
is  now  able  to  exercise  in  the  choice  of  his 
assistants.  "  But  the  evidence  before  the  com- 
mittee points  to  the  conclusion  that,  in  the 
selection  of  their  assistants,  the  head  teachers 
of  our  public  elementary  schools  should  as  a 
rule  be  allowed  to  have  a  more  effective  voice 
than  is  now  granted  to  them,"  says  Dr.  Sadler 
in  writing  the  introduction  to  the  recent  In' 
ternational  Inquiry  on  Moral  Instruction 
and  Training  in  the  Schools.  The  State  might 
very  well  impose  on  the  local  community  the 
obligation  to  support  certain  amounts  or  kinds 
of  vocational  education,  but  leave  to  the  lo- 
cality option  as  to  the  details,  subject  to  in- 
spection. On  the  other  hand,  it  is  probable 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  EDUCATION       261 

that  in  many  States  functions  now  locally  ex- 
ercised exclusively  might  well  be  shared  with 
State  or  higher  authorities,  as  is  done  to  some 
extent  in  the  certification  of  teachers.  For 
example,  local  budgets,  salary  schedules,  and 
pension  schemes  might  all  be  made  to  require 
approval  of  higher  authorities  before  final 
adoption.  It  can  safely  be  said  that  centralized 
administration  through  division  of  responsi- 
bility between  central  and  local  authorities  has 
had  little  more  than  preliminary  development 
in  American  education.  In  the  future  develop- 
ments of  professional  training  of  teachers  after 
entering  on  service,  in  the  development  of 
professional  oversight  of  the  physical  aspects 
of  education,  and  in  provision  of  moral  or 
civic  training,  it  is  entirely  possible  that  the 
State  or  other  large  area  must  assume  increas- 
ing responsibility,  but  it  is  evident  that  the 
social  effectiveness  of  this  will  depend  upon  a 
proper  division  of  responsibility  between  local 
and  central  authorities. 
-  II.  Another  system  of  correctives  to  cen- 
tralization is  that  to  be  found  in  the  existence 


252  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

of  bodies  which,  in  the  exercise  of  more  or 
less  localized  functions,  reflect  public  opinion, 
inform  official  and  centralized  agencies,  and 
in  turn,  through  the  exercise  of  these  powers, 
are  themselves  enlightened  and  have  their 
appreciation  of  the  general  system  of  admin- 
istration enhanced.  For  practical  purposes  we 
may  distinguish  two  types  of  effort  in  this 
direction  :  that  which  involves  laymen  whose 
attitude  towards  the  schools  is  that  mainly  of 
the  public  supporting  the  schools  and  inter- 
ested mainly  in  the  output ;  and  the  relatively 
minor  officials  in  the  system  itself  who  are  in 
most  intimate  touch  with  the  practical  prob- 
lems. 

(a)  State  commissions,  citizens'  unions, 
parents'  associations,  public  education  author- 
ities of  one  kind  and  another  have  been  or- 
ganized at  times  to  study  public  education,  to 
contribute  to  it  moral  support,  and  by  criti- 
cism, destructive  and  constructive,  to  improve 
it.  Vastly  more  extensive  is  the  informal  co- 
operation and  criticism  which  emanates  from 
commercial  and  religious  organizations,  from 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  EDUCATION        253 

political  parties,  and  from  groups  of  people 
expressing  more  or  less  coherent  public  opin- 
ion. In  the  rudimentary  stages  of  the  evolu- 
tion of  educational  administration,  the  last 
agencies  described  are  quite  ample  to  produce 
needed  intimacy  between  the  public  and  the 
schools ;  but  as  administration  becomes  more 
complex  and  highly  and  even  sensitively  or- 
ganized, these  crude  agencies  are  not  only 
often  unserviceable,  but  not  infrequently  posi- 
tively harmful.  Hence  the  need  (since  the 
social  necessity  which  brings  forth  these  forms 
of  expression  continues  and  grows)  that  or- 
ganized channels  for  the  accomplishment  of 
these  purposes  be  fostered.  Not  only  should 
the  organization  of  large  and  small  bodies  of 
laymen  to  study  and  criticize  the  public  schools 
be  encouraged,  but  regular  means  of  com- 
munication for  them  should  be  provided,  and 
when  they  reach  the  point  of  constructive 
recommendation  their  findings  should  invari- 
ably receive  courteous  treatment.  This  will 
not  always  be  easy,  for  in  proportion  as  ad- 
ministration becomes  complex  will  it  prove 


254  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

difficult  to  cause  the  layman  to  be  well  in- 
formed ;  and  the  necessary  effort  to  accomplish 
this  can  only  be  justified  on  the  ground  that 
in  the  long  run  the  resulting  cooperation  is 
indispensable  to  an  educational  administra- 
tion that  combines  efficiency  and  sensitiveness 
to  public  opinion. 

(&)  In  any  centralized  system  there  are  large 
numbers  of  head  masters,  teachers,  and  other 
minor  officials  who  are  in  their  degree  experts 
and  who  are  closely  in  touch  with  practical 
problems.  Like  the  lay  public,  these  also  have 
their  special  and  local  interests  in  education, 
and  not  infrequently  they  have  the  same  in- 
ability to  comprehend  the  larger  aspects  of  the 
problems  involved.  But  their  sympathetic  un- 
derstanding, their  disposition  to  cooperate,  and 
especially  their  knowledge  founded  on  prac- 
tical acquaintance  with  problems  is  essential 
to  the  wider  administration.  One  of  the  early 
effects  of  centralization,  however,  is  largely  to 
silence  this  body.  Frequently  a  measure  of 
suppression  is  thought  necessary  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  morale  or  discipline  of  the 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  EDUCATION       255 

force.  Not  infrequently  autocratic  ideas,  bor- 
rowed from  militaristic  regimes,  provide  easy 
assent  to  measures  taken  to  render  the  "force  " 
orderly.  And  here  again  it  must  be  confessed 
there  is  often  great  provocation.  The  theo- 
rizer,  the  sciolist,  the  chronic  critic,  are  found 
too  frequently  in  the  body  of  teachers  and 
other  minor  officials.  Much  freedom  allowed 
to  these  does  tend  to  demoralization  of  the 
teaching  force,  temporarily  at  least.  But  it  is 
evident  that  a  wise  system  of  administration 
should  prove  abundantly  able  to  draw  on  the 
vast  resources  of  experience  available  in  the 
ranks,  and  especially  to  stimulate  the  self- 
activity  which  results  from  the  exercise  of 
legitimate  freedom,  without  having  chaos  and 
disorder  result.  That  form  of  administration, 
for  example,  whether  of  State,  county,  or  city, 
which  utilizes  to  a  large  extent  committees 
and  associations  either  already  formed  or  cre- 
ated for  this  purpose,  as  means  of  investiga- 
tion, criticism,  suggestion,  and  constructive 
action,  is  surely  most  effective  in  the  long  run. 
Examples  of  this  kind  of  cooperation  are 


256          EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 

readily  available,  even  though  in  many  school 
systems  no  regular  policy  has  yet  been  devel- 
oped of  providing  it  for  a  variety  of  situations. 
State,  divisional,  county,  and  city  associations 
of  teachers  make  recommendations  as  to  legis- 
lation and  occasionally  as  to  administration ; 
in  the  formulation  of  courses  of  study,  com- 
mittees of  teachers  or  principals  are  formed  to 
confer  and  make  recommendations;  in  the 
selection  of  textbooks,  State  or  more  local 
boards  have  often  constituted  committees  to 
examine  books  and  make  tentative  recom- 
mendations. In  a  few  cases  committees  of 
teachers  have  been  asked  to  assist  examining 
boards  in  preparing  questions  for  teachers' 
and  pupils'  examinations.  Recent  tendencies 
of  colleges  to  enlist  the  cooperation  of  second- 
ary school  teachers  in  preparing  tests  for  ad- 
mission to  college  is  another  instance  of  the 
same  tendency. 

It  will,  of  course,  be  recognized  that  the 
communication  and  cooperation  described 
above  exist  constantly  in  an  unorganized  form 
in  most  school  systems ;  but  the  fact  here  to 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  EDUCATION       267 

be  emphasized  is  that  in  a  complex  system  of 
administration  it  is  no  longer  sufficient  to  de- 
pend upon  casual  and  unorganized  efforts  in 
this  direction.  So  important  is  the  interaction 
of  the  various  forces  of  administration  that  as 
systems  become  unwieldy  and  relationships 
less  intimate  and  personal,  in  that  proportion 
is  it  necessary  to  organize  and  set  in  motion 
machinery  which  will  systematically  effect  the 
same  result.  This  principle  has  already  ob- 
tained recognition  in  the  conduct  of  large 
business  affairs;  owing  to  the  sensitive  and 
personal  character  of  public  education,  the 
need  for  such  mutual  interaction  here  is  much 
greater. 

In  view,  then,  of  the  rapid  and  to  a  large 
extent  necessary  centralization  which  is  every- 
where taking  place  in  educational  administra- 
tion, it  would  seem  that  educators  should,  as 
far  as  practicable,  recognize  and  give  effect  to 
principles  like  the  following :  — 

1.  The  evolution  of  administration  should 
be  alona:  such  lines  as  to  secure  the  selection 


258          EDUCATIONAL  KEADJUSTMENT 

and  retention  of  a  genuine  expert  at  the  head 
of  each  important  administrative  function. 
This  principle  is  widely  observed  now,  espe- 
cially in  municipal  school  administration,  but 
the  glaring  exceptions  are  the  popularly  elected 
and  therefore  largely  inexpert  county  and 
State  superintendents  of  public  instruction  in 
the  majority  of  the  States. 

2.  Back  of  the  expert,  and  in  ultimate  but 
guarded  authority  over  him,  should  be  a  com- 
mittee or  board  representing  the  public  and 
as  immediately  responsible  to  the  public  as 
possible.  Such  boards  should  be  restricted  as 
regards  administrative  initiative   and  recom- 
mendation, but  their  general  powers  of  veto 
and  approval  should  be  large.  In  many  cases 
State  boards  of  education  are  at  present  not 
of  this  character ;  and  the  majority  of  city  and 
other  school  boards  do  not  yet  concede  to  the 
expert  the  powers  of  initiation  and  recom- 
mendation here  implied. 

3.  Administrative  policy  should  seek  a  con- 
sistent division  of  functions  between  local  and 
central  administrative  agencies  to  the  end  that 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  EDUCATION       259 

flexibility,  variation,  and  mutual  understand- 
ing may  result.  The  examples  of  this  at  pres- 
ent are  few  and  irregular. 

4.  Lay   agencies  and  commissions  tempo- 
rary or  permanent  should  be  developed  widely 
to  represent  local  sentiment,  to  study  adminis- 
tration, and  finally  to  express  public  opinion. 
These  now  exist  to  some  extent,  but  they  are 
sporadic  in  character  and  receive  little  sys- 
tematic  encouragement  from  administrative 
authorities. 

5.  Similarly,  bodies  small  and  large  should 
be  freely  created  or  encouraged  among  the 
rank  and  file  of  the  lower  officials  of  the  force 
of  experts  for  the  purpose  of  being  charged 
with  a  measure  of  responsibility  for  reflection 
of  local  expert  sentiment,  for  study  of  prob- 
lems, and  for  final  recommendations.  These 
bodies  now  occasionally  exist,  but  no  system- 
atic policy  has  been  adopted  with  reference 
to  their  organization  and  functioning. 


INDEX 


Administration .  educational  ,233. 
Agriculture,  114. 
Appreciation,  education  for,  163. 

Butler,  President,  242. 

Centralized  administration  of 
education,  233. 

Citizenship,  education  for,  75, 
103. 

Civic  education,  91. 

College  education,  67. 

College  preparatory  studies,  155, 
162,  177. 

Commercial  subjects  in  upper 
grades,  143. 

Cooperative  education,  225- 

Cooperative  vocational  educa- 
tion, 205. 

Correlation  in  practical  arts,  123. 

Custom  in  education,  24. 

Democracy  and  education,  20. 
Democracy,  education  for,  88. 
Departmental  teaching,  144. 
Differentiation  in  upper  grade 

work,  130. 
Division  of  administrative  power, 

246,248. 

Education,  new,  1. 
Education  for  utilization,  69. 
Educational  administration,  27. 
Educational  flexibility,  21. 
Educational  readjustment,  7. 
Efficiency    in    educational   ad- 
ministration, 236. 


Elementary  education,  130. 

Elementary  school,  manual  train- 
ing in,  114. 

English  expression,  171- 

Evening  vocational  education, 
207. 

Executive  ability,  education  for, 
164. 

Expert  in  education,  239. 

Expert  service,  28. 

Fitchburg,  Mass.,  144. 
Flexibility  of  elementary  curric- 
ulum, 137. 

Foreign  language,  139. 
French  public  schools,  111. 

High  School,  maladjustment  in, 

133 ;  two  years'  course  in,  148 ; 

increased  attendance  in,  134 ; 

program  for,  168. 
High  schools,  small,  154. 
History  as  social  science,  173. 
History  in   elementary  schools, 

108. 
History,  study  of,  88 ;  scientific 

treatment  of,  100. 
Household  arts,  114. 
Humanities,  76. 

Instinct  of  teaching,  27. 
Intermediate      high         school, 

145. 
Intermediate  schools,  143. 

Language,  foreign,  179. 
Liberal  education,  65, 160,  163 ; 


262 


INDEX 


program  of,  81 ;  practical  arts 
in,  113;  defined,  115. 

Liberal  and  vocational  educa- 
tion, 185. 

Literature,  English,  169. 

Localized  administration  of  edu- 
cation, 233. 

Logical  order  in  studies,  48, 119. 

Logical  organization  of  subject- 
matter,  35. 

Lowell,  A.  Lawence,  245  (foot- 
note). 

Manual  training,  113. 

Manufacturing  industries,  voca- 
tional education  for,  193. 

Mathematics,  77. 

Memorization,  25. 

Method,  33 ;  basis  of,  54  ;  in  vo- 
cational education,  227. 

Methods  of  teaching,  23. 

"  Natural "  learning,  39,  48. 
"  Natural "  learning  capacities, 

165. 
Nietzsche,  cited,  101. 

Part-time  vocational  education, 

205,  224. 

Pedagogical  order,  43,  119. 
Pedagogic  order   in   vocational 

education,  220. 
Practical  arts,  113, 140,  152  ;  in 

small   high   schools,   161  ;   in 

high  schools,  175. 
Practical   work    in    vocational 

education,  216. 
Primary  teaching,  44. 
Primary  grades,  success  of,  130. 
Productive  work  in   vocational 

education,  188. 
Professional  education,  213. 


Program  of  studies,  congestion 
of,  138. 

"  Projects  "  in  practical  arts, 
125. 

Psychology  of  vocational  educa- 
tion, 211. 

Public  school,  scope  of,  11. 

Retardation,  132, 146. 
Robinson,  ,T.  H.,  112. 
Russell,  Dean,  ref .,  119. 

Sadler,  Dr.,  ref.,  250. 

Schools,  intermediate,  143. 

Science,  78 ;  general,  172 ;  so- 
cial, 173. 

Social  economy,  9. 

Social  instincts,  104. 

Social  science,  173. 

Specialized  occupations,  educa- 
tion for,  195. 

State  control  of  education, 
105. 

Teachers'  organization,  254. 
Technical  studies  in  vocational 

education,  218. 
Thorndyke,  Dr.,  154. 

"  Unit  "  of  learning,  61. 

Variability  in  education,  243. 

Vocational  education,  65;  de- 
fined, 115 ;  in  small  high 
schools.  175  ;  issues  in,  183 ; 
accepted  principles  regarding, 
187;  for  what  callings,  192; 
for  persons  from  14  to  16, 
196,  221 ;  productive  work  in, 
201 ;  psychology,  of  211 ;  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  213. 

Voluntary  organizations,  251. 


A     000  599  847     1 


